Convergence
by Jack-El49
Summary: The fourth and final story in a series that has Clark and Lois searching for an answer to regain a future that was somehow was lost.  With the help of their daughter from the future, they hope to pinpoint the event and reverse the dismal future ahead.
1. Chapter 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a sequel to Divergence and the final story in a series of stories. If you haven't read Gravidity, Sanguine and Divergence in that order, you probably won't understand what's happening with this story.

Chapter 1

Metropolis

May 23, 2042

"_I used to be stronger than I am now. That was before I lost all of my powers."_

Elle stopped dead in her tracks; frozen by the words her father had uttered. "What?" she managed after a moment. "When; how? Do you mean like temporarily or…" she asked, hoping to hear it was a temporary condition.

Clark stopped and turned to face his daughter. "Permanent, I'm afraid…and for a while now." He searched her face for a reaction but hers was frozen in shock. Finally he led her toward the dining area where the table and chairs she remembered as a child still remained.

Lana was busy in the kitchen brewing coffee. Not much had changed in the apartment and in the light Elle could see the worn condition of the home and its appointments. They sat while the coffee brewed and Clark began his story.

"Two days after you left, your mother pitched her story about Lex to Perry White, the editor back then, and showed him the video clip. Perry told her that he was uncomfortable with publishing the story and video without a corroborating source." Clark began. "Your mother argued with Perry saying that she got the video of Luthor ordering the murder of Justice Hough from a White House source and that should be good enough." He lowered his voice. "She never told Perry who her source was and for all Perry knew, it was a member of the custodial staff or Secret Service that passed the evidence on. Neither could be expected to testify in a lawsuit."

The absence of sound from the city outside was remarkable and lent to the feeling of dread building in Elle. It was eerily quiet and a cool, moist breeze blew in from the terrace, sending a chill down Elle's spine just as Clark continued with his story…

Metropolis

June 25, 2021

Lois ate quietly, deep in thought. Clark had returned around 8 PM and missed seeing Lara off to bed. He crept into her room, kissed her on the cheek and quietly retreated to the dinner table where Lois had an array of Chinese take-out boxes sitting. She had taken Martha home and when she returned decided that ordering take-out was just fine for the evening.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

She paused and then answered. "Elle. I'm wondering what's keeping her. I guess I expected her to go and be back in a split second with great news; time travel being what it is."

He pondered the matter. "Maybe there's more to it that just Pete changing course and she has to examine a whole lot more than we expected."

"I suppose," Lois replied sullenly. "But she can come back to any point in time, right?"

"You mean like leaving this instant and coming back an instant later?"

She nodded. "You have to be extremely skilled with the Legion Ring to do that. The Legion members could do that but Elle hasn't been trained or has practiced enough to do that. Returning to your own timeline isn't a problem. But traveling forward or backward in time is much more complicated. Within a week of where and when you need to be; sure. If she was lucky, maybe even within a few days. But traveling back to an exact hour or minute takes a lot of training and practice with that ring." He saw the concern on her face when she looked up. "I don't think I could do that."

"Wait a minute; you've never used it!" Lois protested. "I've used it more than you have!"

He smiled. "You're right! And when you did, you left the basement of the Planet one moment and returned on an elevated train two weeks later. It's not as simple as it seems. Lara doesn't have much more experience with time travel than you had."

She nodded, seemingly more relieved. Then a frown crossed her face. "But she always knew just when to return when she came back to talk to me."

"Lois, you don't know exactly when she returned, do you? You only knew when she showed up."

She cocked her head. "I guess so," she admitted. "She did say that she had a place to stay if she needed to. So maybe she arrived days before she knew it was safe to meet up with me."

He raised an eyebrow. "That's quite possibly what happened."

"So, the fact that she didn't immediately return doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong; is that what you're saying?"

He nodded and slurped a noodle. "That's correct. Maybe things are so right that there's no rush to come back. Or maybe she's worried that coming back immediately may change something that throws the future we're currently on off track. Maybe…"

"Okay Smallville; I've got it. Geez," she exclaimed rolling her eyes. "I didn't need the unabridged version of time-travel variables."

He grinned. "I'm just trying to reassure you that Lara not coming back immediately can mean something positive as well as what you're stewing about."

She raised an eyebrow. "Stewing?" She donned a fake smile. "I don't stew, Farmer John."

Taking a deep breath, "Yes you do," he replied playfully.

She rose from her chair, put her napkin on the table and began moving toward him. "No…I don't," she said emphatically. "I burn…I roast," she said slowly, deliberately and upon reaching him, she bent over, wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, "and I sizzle." She gently bit his ear lobe and kissed the side of his neck before standing up. "But I don't stew."

Her nuzzle sent a warm flash racing through Clark. "I especially like it when you sizzle," he replied hoarsely.

"Me too," she said cheerfully, then abruptly returned to her chair and sat. "So quit playing me and maybe we'll get around to the sizzle part later."

Clark could do nothing more than smile. Of all the people he came into contact with on Earth, Lois had the most profound way of making her point and once she had made it, there was seldom room for disagreement. "Okay," he admitted. "But Lara not returning immediately shouldn't be cause for alarm, Lois."

"Got it," she declared, staring at him with a pasted-on smile until he broke eye contact and began eating again. Then, she commenced eating. "So what happened in Seattle?"

Clark recounted the details of the meeting; who was there, how everyone was doing, and what they were planning to do with this potential threat looming on the horizon.

"Do you really think it's Darkseid again? Didn't he learn his lesson after you kicked his ass all the way back to Apokolips?"

"I hope he did; I hope it's not him. He's an incredible threat and given what Lara told us about the future, his influence would be a plausible explanation for the way the people of this country were acting. Instead of him trying to exercise mind control over all of humanity he could simply focus on key people, nudging leaders just enough to make them unleash a global nuclear war against one another." He swallowed and picked up an egg roll. "Most of his work would already be done without him having to even break a sweat."

"You know," she began, "when Elle described the way people were acting, it reminded me of the days just before the VRA was passed." She shrugged. "Maybe that was the divergence point when our future changed. Maybe something happening with him caused it. I guess we'll find out." Clark said nothing but listened, nodding his head. "On a lighter note, I pitched the story to Perry today."

"How did he take it?"

"Pretty much the way I expected. He said he wanted a credible source that was willing to be named before he'd publish it. I didn't tell him I got it from Lana." Clark nodded his concurrence. "Understandably, he's a little apprehensive about it and wants to have all the bases covered before I swing for the fences."

"Great sports metaphor," Clark quipped.

She made a face. "He kept the flash drive and put it in his safe. Then he warned me not to let the laptop out of my sight."

Clark quickly scanned the apartment and frowned. "Where is it now?"

"Don't worry. I erased it from my laptop. I uploaded it to the Planet server before I erased it. But…before you ask; it's in a password-protected folder. No one has access to it but me."

"Let me guess," Clark said, "the password is 'Metallica', right?"

She gave him a look of exasperation. "That's because you know me," she complained. "Relax; it's secure. No one goes into those folders anyway; particularly password-protected ones." She stood and began closing up the boxes of food.

Finished with his meal, Clark stood and began to help. "That's probably the best thing right now," he replied. "My guess is that Lex still has something up his sleeve and there's no point in firing all your guns at once."

"Ooooo, talk about metaphors!" she teased. "You sound like the General." She moved next to him. "How about another military metaphor, Flannel Man?"

Flummoxed for a moment, Clark though and then said, "Um…keep your powder dry?"

"Nice one." She grinned lasciviously and leaned closer. "Keep it up and powder is about the only thing that's going to be dry in this house."

Metropolis

May 23, 2042

"I am assuming the file wasn't as protected as she thought," Elle said. Clark just shook his head while staring at the steaming mug of coffee he cupped in his hands. In the light she could see the toll that the loss of her mother and his life without her had taken on him. He looked aged and his thick black hair now showed strands of silver under the dining room light. He looked tired and defeated; akin to the look that her father had before he left for another galaxy in her own timeline but far more aged.

"We'll never really know what happened. Maybe she didn't actually set the password or maybe some other reporter saw the folder and hacked the password. But not soon afterwards the story was published on the Daily Planet website." He looked up at Lana and then at Elle. "That was the beginning of the end." Clark took a long swallow of coffee.

Elle looked at Lana. "What happened?"

After looking first at Clark who seemed content to let her carry on with the dark history lesson, Lana looked at Elle. She realized how much Elle looked like her mother and realizing that, it reminded her of the beauty of the woman that captured Clark's heart the way she never had. She tried to smile but it seemed like a wince and she began. "Before the story was published, you have to know about Lex's response to Pete's public announcements. You know about those, right?"

"You mean his announcements about his nominee for the Supreme Court and the resignation of the Attorney General?"

Lana nodded. "Yes."

"I saw them on the news broadcast…before I left." Elle was going to say, "two days ago" but it seemed too surreal and somehow so distant now.

"Well, it wasn't long before my husband got a call from former President Luthor. Pete was expecting the call but it wasn't exactly what he expected to hear."

Washington, D.C.

June 26, 2021

"Sir," the young male assistant said to Pete over the intercom, "you have a call from President Luthor. Shall I put him through?"

Pete was expecting the call. In fact, he was surprised that the call came three days after he made the announcement of his choice for the Supreme Court vacancy. Pete may be the sitting President of the United States but this was the one call that he worried about. He feared Lex. After seeing the video of Lex order the murder of a Supreme Court justice, he knew Luthor was capable of anything to seize power.

"Yes, but put him through on the recorded line; not the private number."

"Yes sir," the young assistant replied.

"Mr. President," Lex began. His tone was cold, calm and calculating. "It appears the plan we had for my Presidency has taken a detour of sorts."

Pete clenched his jaws. "You gave up your Presidency, Lex. This is my Presidency now and I'll…"

"You're nothing more than a placeholder, Acting President Ross," Lex barked. "You didn't get there because the people put you there; you're there because I made you President. You seem to forget that, Pete."

"You seem to forget that you're a private citizen, Lex and you put yourself there. How I got here is less important right now than the fact that I am here and you're not. Don't even try to intimidate me, Luthor because it won't work."

Coolly, Lex replied, "I don't need to intimidate you, Pete. I'm giving you the facts and the facts are I intend to reclaim the Presidency. I wanted you to hear it from me first."

"I'm not sure you want to try doing that Lex. I will bring some serious heat if you even try." The tenor of Lex's laughter that followed was unnerving to him. "I'm afraid you won't be laughing when the Attorney General is finished with you."

"We'll see who laughs last," Lex concluded and ended the call.

Pete returned the phone to the cradle, sat back in his chair and absently felt the flash drive suspended by a chain around his neck. _Yes we will, Lex_, he thought. He pushed the intercom and the young male assistant answered. "Get the new Attorney General on the phone and ask him to come see me, please."

"Yes, Sir," the young man replied. "Sir?"

"Yes?"

"The White House legal counsel is here and is asking for a few moments of your time. Shall I send him in?"

"Sure," Pete replied.

L. Todd Blake, Esquire, a 52-year old former Princeton law professor entered the room. Pete had dismissed Lex's legal counsel and tapped Blake to serve as the President's personal attorney. He was a tall, athletically-built man whose physical presence was second only to his keen legal reputation. "Mr. President," he began, bypassing all routine courtesies. "Former President Luthor has filed a petition in federal district court to reacquire this office." He held up a thin stack of legal papers. "The district court has granted it an emergency hearing. Oral arguments begin next week."

"Which district, Todd?"

"Nevada, ."

"So, the decision would be appealed to the Ninth Circuit." Blake nodded his head. "Figures," Pete said. "This one will go the distance. What grounds is he using?"

"That the White House physician provided…" he glanced at the papers, "grossly inaccurate diagnosis of his medical condition that resulted in a faulty prognosis, leading him to resign his office in the best interest of the country." He looked up. "He's petitioned the court to reinstate him as President because of a bad medical diagnosis."

Pete leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. "Does he have a valid case in your opinion?"

Todd frowned. "Perhaps," he began. "The White House physician is a government employee. In his capacity as a government employee, he rendered an opinion that ultimately perpetrated harm on Mr. Luthor." He shrugged. "These types of cases are heard every day in federal court and when harm caused by an act of the government can be proven, the petitioners often prevail."

"What if there was mitigating evidence?"

"Sir?" Blake asked; confused by the President's question.

"What if it could be argued that his condition was never dire but that it was nothing more than a ploy to pursue two additional terms as President?"

Legal counsel stared at Pete. "I'm afraid that would be incredibly difficult to prove, Mr. President. He'll have expert medical testimony on his side. That would be tantamount to accusing President Luthor of perpetrating a fraud on the government. What would we have as evidence to support that argument?"

A slight smile spread across Pete's face. "Leave that to me. Give me a couple hours to meet with the Attorney General and then we'll discuss this again. For now, begin preparing an argument in that direction. I presume that this will be resolved before the Supreme Court given those activist clowns in the Ninth Circuit so our strategy has to be sound."

Blake acknowledged the President's guidance and left the room. As he opened the door to the Oval Office, Pete's press secretary was standing just outside and caught Pete's eye. "Sir, you should see this," he said, entering the office with a tablet in his hands. He set it on the desk in front of the President.

Pete watched a newscast with a banner that proclaimed 'Special Report' emblazoned across the top of the screen and a crawler at the bottom that read 'Former President Luthor petitions court to return to Presidency'. Live footage of Lex was broadcast as he openly discussed the faulty medical diagnosis. "Americans deserve to be led by the leader they elected," he said. "President Ross and I have already had spoken and this filing is purely procedural," he asserted. "President Ross recognizes that this is my Presidency but wanted to be cautious about violating any laws by hastily relinquishing the office to me. To ensure that I return with full legal authority and Constitutional legitimacy, we've agreed that it's in the best interest of the American people that this be reviewed by the courts." The crawler at the bottom of the screen read, 'Medical experts opine that Luthor is 100% healthy and fit to continue as Commander-in-Chief'.

"What is our response, Sir?"

"Simply acknowledge Luthor's petition and say that the White House will not comment on any case before the federal court so as not to influence the outcome."

"Have you spoken to President Luthor, Sir?"

Pete smiled and nodded. "Yes I have, Steve. As a matter of fact, we spoke this morning."

It was eventually published and within two days of the video hitting the internet, President Pete Ross was assassinated by a lone gunman who then allegedly took his own life.

Pete's death drove an already nervous populace to the brink of societal breakdown. Acts of anarchy broke out all over the country even as Pete was being laid to rest. The Vice President that Pete had nominated to serve had not yet been confirmed and the Speaker of the House of Representatives assumed the Presidency. But the Speaker was ineffective at restoring order.

"Your Mother's article led to Lex Luthor resurfacing," Clark explained as Lana rose to get coffee. "Of course, he claimed the video was a hoax and charged that your Mother had conspired with anarchists to incite violence with her defamatory article and video."

"And I take it the public believed him," Elle interjected.

"Yes," Clark replied. "For all his faults, Lex had the ability to project a calm confidence and through it, could manipulate the masses. The American public saw Lex as the one man who could get the country under control and demanded Congress to disregard the order of succession and using an emergency declaration, install Lex as the President, pending a Supreme Court review. The High Court never had the chance to rule; Lex imposed martial law to re-establish order and suspended civil liberties. He had your Mother arrested for fomenting violence and attempting to overthrow the US government. He then directed Perry White's termination from the Daily Planet and placed me under house arrest as a conspirator."

"You were in jail?"

"Yes, for quite a while, Lara. I was in jail and you were judged dependent and became a ward of the state until your Aunt Lucy petitioned the court to be your legal guardian."

"Aunt Lucy?" Elle shook her head. "I know Mother had issues with Aunt Lucy and I don't remember her very much."

"Well, she was awarded custody of you and within four months, she found out that you weren't like every other two year old. Her lack of discretion ended up exposing me and by extension, your mother. Your mother was murdered by a group of women in prison."

Elle wrung her hands and stared at her coffee. "How did Aunt Lucy expose you?"

Clark sat with his hands wrapped around the hot cup of coffee. "While visiting your mother, she asked about you and about who your father really was. Your mother couldn't believe that Lucy would ask the question so she tried to put her off but Lucy asked straight out if Superman was her father. The conversation was recorded and it immediately was passed on to Lex's Attorney General. After some preliminary checking, they realized that I was Superman. About two months later, your mother was murdered."

She looked up and saw the defeated look in her father's eyes that she had seen so often while growing up. She hated to ask the question but had to. "Why didn't you rescue her, Father?"

Clark took a swallow of coffee before giving an answer. "When Lex learned that I was Superman, he ordered the restraining collar made. It was created in a matter of weeks while your mother was still alive and while I thought my secret was still safe."

"How did they know about kryptonite; the blue and the gold? No one ever knew about that in my timeline."

Clark hesitated and Lana spoke out. "Emil told them."

"Emil? Would he do something like that?"

"He was protecting me," Lana replied. "After Pete…the President…was assassinated, I fled. I knew Lex all too well and I knew that I wasn't safe nor was my son. I was six months pregnant at the time and was in hiding. But I needed a physician and I called Chloe. She put me in touch with Emil." She looked at Clark who continued to stare at his mug. "By this time, Lex had figured out that I had given the copy of the video to your mom and he was after me. With me gone, there would be no one to corroborate the evidence against him."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Metropolis

May 25, 2042

Elle listened to Lana recount the events immediately following President Ross' announcements that he had made twenty-one years ago. Listening to the story filled her with a sense of the surreal. On the one hand, many of the outcomes she anticipated occurred. Some of the history that she lived was repeated but twisted and fractured by the new conditions that arose after her father and mother had visited the White House.

"To this day, I believe Pete overplayed his hand dealing with Lex. The Attorney General's staff obviously had people loyal to Lex and withholding the video until the Supreme Court hearing on Lex's case was a mistake," Lana said. "The electronic file that Pete had given the Attorney General wasn't 'first evidence' so the server in the White House library was surrendered to the Attorney General. But that server was wiped of all data sometime after it was transferred to the AG."

"So the only person who had evidence was my mother," Elle interjected.

"No. Pete still had a copy as well. But that evidence no longer had the same value as the recording that was captured by the server. Ultimately, it never mattered. A copy was provided to Lex's attorneys as part of discovery before the Supreme Court heard the arguments." Lana hesitated, glanced at Clark and then out at the terrace. "Pete was assassinated a couple days after that took place."

"On no," Elle gasped. "How did it happen?"

"The assassination was allegedly committed by a Chinese nationalist who then took his own life," Clark said. "Pete died in the attack and Lana was injured."

"And I probably would have been killed had it not been for your father," Lana said solemnly. "Pete and I were holding a welcoming ceremony in the White House Rose Garden…"

Washington, D.C.

July 22, 2021

"I'll be home as soon as this is over, Lois," Clark said on his cell phone. "I'll want to say hello to Pete and Lana for a few minutes if they have time but I'll leave right after that."

Clark stood at the rear of the press representatives assembled to cover the welcoming ceremony for the wife of the Prime Minister of Taiwan. The ceremony was not due to begin for another five minutes and as the final touches on decorations and podium were being completed by contractors and White House staff, the credentialed members of the press milled around perfecting camera angles and finalizing sound checks.

During the years that Lex Luthor spent as President, he inflamed relations with China and steadily turned the American public against the Far East giant. Pete had extended an olive branch to the Chinese and had leveraged Taiwan's normalized relations with China to help diffuse the building tension. The ceremony was an important step for Pete and his efforts to repair the strained diplomatic ties with China.

"I'm still mad that Perry wouldn't let me attend; I could have been in the front row," Lois carped. "And Lana wanted me to go shopping with her for maternity clothes after the ambassador took Madam Yu back to their embassy."

"If I get the chance, I'll ask them to visit Metropolis and you two can go shopping then."

"You think they'd come?" Lois asked eagerly.

"I guess it all depends on the President's schedule…and how the soon the Supreme Court rules on Pete's case," Clark said quietly. He had wandered away from the mass of reporters. "We could even sneak a trip out to Smallville."

"That would be cool," Lois said. "Maybe you and Pete could finally get in that game of one-on-one."

He spotted Pete and Lana moving toward the doors that led to the Rose Garden access. "Hey, I probably need to go. I think they're on their way."

"Okay," Lois said. "Hurry home."

"I always do," he replied and disconnected.

Madam Yu was between the President and First Lady, talking with Lana as they neared the walkway that led to the Rose Garden. They stopped and greeted the Taiwanese ambassador to the United States and his wife, then moved behind a hedgerow toward the staging area. The White House Press Secretary issued brief reminders before introducing the President and Madam Yu.

As Pete and the Prime Minister's wife walked to the podium, Clark heard an unnatural click and instinctively scanned the podium area. He spotting a cluster of plastic explosives planted beneath the ring of flowering azaleas positioned along the walkway leading to the podium. With no time to change, he blurred through the throng of media, weaving and bumping cameras and reporters milliseconds before the blast. As the ground erupted, Pete and Madam Yu were impacted by the concussive force of the massive blast. Clark reached them as they were flying backward in mid-air. He grabbed both, driving them backward beyond the reach of the erupting fireball in the direction of the staging area where only Lana remained. He deposited them softly as possible on the grass and turned to see the fireball and debris spreading in all directions. The blast tore the podium to slivers and sent chunks of chiseled granite from the planter hurling towards Lana who was now in mid-air after being hit by the concussion. Launching himself in her direction, Clark caught her before she hit the ground, flew her behind the hedgerow next to the staging area and covered her as the chiseled granite missiles deflected from his back and tumbled harmlessly onto the lawn beyond the Rose Garden.

Lana opened her eyes to see Clark covering her only for an instant and then disappear before screams and cries erupted. Secret service agents raced past her and converged on the President and Madam Yu, surrounding and shielding them from view. Lana's security detail arrived seconds later, holding her down to shield her from any follow-on attacks. Medical personnel raced to the Rose Garden from all directions.

"Let me up!" Lana ordered but her protective detail did not comply. "I'm okay, let me up!"

"You're not okay, Ma'am," one of the agents said. "Please stay down until we know it's safe and the medics can check you."

"I'm fine, she said and struggled in vain. "I need to see if my…" Her sentence was cut short by a stabbing pain in her midsection. She cried out as the sharp pain intensified and then she immediately lost consciousness.

Metropolis

May 25, 2042

"Pete suffered brain hemorrhaging from the blast and died three days later," Lana said, almost in a whisper. "And I lost our baby. But I would have been dead if it hadn't been for your father," she added, looking his way.

Elle didn't know what to say. She had never met Pete Ross but in the last few days she had grown to admire him. No one was talking. Clark was reflecting on that day, reminding himself he had done the best he could and his actions had saved Madam Yu and Lana. Finally he spoke. "If only I could have done more things would have turned out much differently; especially for my best friend." He paused for more than just a moment but finally continued. "I had a couple of other saves afterwards where I helped someone in a dangerous situation but that day at the White House Rose Garden was about the last time I could say with any confidence that people were still alive because of me. It wasn't too long after that day that things really changed."

There was absolutely no sound emanating from the terrace. No sounds of car or truck engines, no horns or no random shout or crescendo of reveling voices from the city below. Even more than when she arrived, silence covered the city like an acoustic shroud.

"The Supreme Court had notified all parties that it was prepared to hear arguments the following week. After the assassination, the Court reversed its decision to hear the appeal because the petitioner was no longer alive and the White House arguments would lack judicial standing for the Supreme Court."

"And was that because Luthor had the court in his pocket?" Elle asked.

"No. I think the Supreme Court felt there was enough upheaval and that two lower courts had already ruled in Lex's favor so there wasn't any point of hearing the case. If they had ruled in Pete's favor and Pete was no longer alive, it would have just thrown the whole political scene into a larger crisis than it already was in. The American public's psyche was probably another major consideration." Lana interjected.

"Lex had aready raised his head publicly again. Pete had remained silent about Luthor's plotting; he never took his case to the American people or the courts." He took another sip of coffee and then continued. "Lex played the whole event for the media. To watch it from afar, you would have thought Lex and Pete were lifelong friends and Luthor was simply trying to cross all the "T"s and dot all the "I"s. Sadly, to this day I'm convinced that Lex had Pete murdered and framed a poor Asian laborer who was a new worker in the company contracted to do the work on the Rose Garden. They accused him of concealing high explosives in the root balls of several plants and wiring them together with a detonator that was planted along with the shrubs."

"Didn't you say he committed suicide?" Elle asked.

"Reportedly," Lana answered. "But it's obvious to me that Lex had him murdered." She leaned forward and rested on her forearms. "You see, Lex used that man's ethnicity to help enflame an already whipped up public."

She looked at her father. "But you knew what was really happening, right? I mean, I told you about my timeline and Luthor's plot. Did he launch the nuclear strike?"

Clark shook his head. "He couldn't because he knew there would be a massive annihilation of his military capabilities once he did that and that I would not be there to intervene."

Elle frowned. "How would he know that?"

Taking a deep breath and then letting it out slowly, Clark began. "This is where your mother comes in. In your timeline, I think you said your mother died when you were eight years old if recall."

"That's right."

Clark looked down and back up at her. "When you told us about her death and how it came about, we believed that changing the present to prevent Luthor's rise to power and launching a nuclear attack on China would save your mother. It's hard to believe that preventing that future made this future even worse."

Washington D.C.

July 31, 2021

Lois, Clark and Chloe sat in the front pew, next to Lana. They were her closest and oldest friends. Lacking any family, they filled the vacancy and proved to be the support she needed the most. She was holding up better than any of them would have suspected after losing Pete and their baby in one horrendous afternoon. Lana asked Clark if he would give the eulogy and Clark spoke eloquently of their friendship and Pete's humble beginnings growing up in Smallville; his reflection on those times brought Lana, Lois and Chloe to tears. He spoke of happier, simpler times and of his best friend's loyalty, patriotism, fidelity and character.

Lex had returned to office and as President, he offered glowing remarks of Pete's contributions to America and his loyalty as part of the Luthor administration while tacitly accusing the Chinese government of ordering Pete's assassination. He recognized Lois and glared at her for a moment. She had been a thorn in his side more than once and it irritated him that she was sitting near Lana and had to look in her direction.

Lois bristled at Lex's remarks and had Lana not been seated nearby, she would have openly confronted Lex. Instead she squeezed Clark's hand and clenched her teeth, silently vowing to bring Lex down.

Immediately following the burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Lois left for Metropolis alone. Clark stayed to talk with the former White House counsel to see if he could develop any leads at the Attorney General's office that could help find Lois a source willing to go on the record. Chloe stayed a few extra days to help her former roommate organize her life and be her main source of support for the moment when the magnitude of her loss finally set in.

Metropolis

May 25, 2042

They sat at the dining room table, still sipping coffee that Lana had refreshed. The light seemed dim, illuminating only the immediate area and gave the meeting a clandestine feeling. Clark leaned forward across the table, resting on his forearms and speaking in a hushed tone.

"I found the name of an investigator in the Attorney General's office from President Ross' chief legal counsel. The investigator was Danny Laroche. He had been ordered by the Deputy Attorney General to seize the small server in the White House residence and then have its contents examined and secured. He saw the video that your mother had gotten from Lana. He had provided a briefing to the Deputy AG and Attorney General about the video and had prepared a written investigative report for submission to a federal grand jury."

"I'm assuming that report was never located," Elle commented.

Clark nodded. "But not before Lois got the name to Perry but Perry didn't authorized the release of the story. He still wanted someone more official; someone from the White House.

"Your mother went back to her computer and found the story was there but decided the embedded video needed to be enhanced just a bit. She got the flash drive from Perry and reloaded the video onto her computer and using a video enhancement tool, sharpened the image and sound. She saved it back to the flash drive, embedded it back into the article, added my name to the byline below hers and then saved it back in the folder." Clark sat back. "We'll never be sure how it happened. Either someone hacked it or your mother forgot to protect the folder with a password. By the time we got home from the Planet that day, every major and minor news outlet had picked up the story from our site and broadcast it. The story spread like a wildfire and it wasn't long after that, Perry received a call from the Deputy Attorney General. He told Perry to pull the story off line."

"Did he?"

"No," Clark said. "Perry was satisfied that it was authentic, properly sourced, and relevant. He refused to take the story off line. Two hours later, the Planet was served with a court order to take it off line. But by the time Perry complied with the order, the story had already circled the globe."

"So what?" Elle asked. "I mean, the video and story were factual. How could a judge suppress the story? It's political speech, protected by the First Amendment. What about freedom of the press?"

"Not in this country," Lana interjected. "And not with Lex as President."

"Lex invoked an Executive Order from the Year 2012 that banned politically-damaging conspiracy theories from being broadcast or distributed and labeled them dangerous to the domestic tranquility and effective functioning of government. Using that as a basis, he compelled the Attorney General to issue arrest warrants for your mother and me. The Attorney General would not issue them and Lex fired him and promoted the Deputy. He issued the warrants."

"So both of you were arrested at the same time?"

Clark nodded and swallowed hard. "We were arraigned together the following day. That was the last time I saw your mother."

Elle stayed silent for a minute, respecting her father's pain. Finally she asked, "What about Investigator Laroche? Didn't he testify?"

Clark nodded. "The problem was that the entire contents of the server from the White House had been corrupted and the original source evidence was irretrievably lost. He could only testify that he saw the video but the evidence itself was gone."

"Someone in the Justice Department nuked it with a very strong magnetic device," Lana interjected. "At least that is what the forensic examination concluded."

"But Perry White had the flash drive, didn't he?"

"But it had been altered. Your mother enhanced the video and therefore had altered it. The new White House legal staff tore that video to pieces in Grand Jury testimony. Perry lost his job and your mother and I were sentenced to two years in federal prison for attempting to undermine the authority of the President by perpetrating a hoax." Clark picked up his coffee mug but didn't drink it. He stared at the contents of it and then set it back on the table. He looked up at Elle. "That sentence probably wouldn't have held up on appeal but something happened shortly after we went back and began working on our appeal."

"What?"

"Your Aunt Lucy. She had custody of you since both of us were incarcerated and it took only about two months before she realized you were different."

"How? I really didn't have much in the way of powers then, did I?"

Clark smiled and it was the first time she'd seen any sign of happiness in his face. "You were stronger than most 3 year olds but not so evident that it would be obvious. However, two things happened that made your Aunt Lucy realize you were an average human girl.

"You were playing with your cousin Sam. He was about 4 years older than you and not exactly well-behaved. He grabbed something you were playing with just to make you mad and then he was going to run into his bedroom with it. But you jumped up and beat him to his bedroom door and pulled the toy out of his hands." His eyes lit up. "Your Aunt Lucy witnessed the whole thing. At first she wasn't sure that she saw what she did but it was the second thing that convinced her that you weren't an average child.

"About two weeks later, she was talking on the phone while baking cookies in the oven. She wasn't paying any attention to what you were doing. You walked over, opened the oven door and reached in and pulled out the cookie sheet with your bare hands." He chuckled. "She heard the oven door open and came in to see you holding the cookie sheet. It scared her to death thinking that you had blistered your hands. Of course, there were no marks and you had no reaction to how hot the cookie sheet was." He smiled again. "That was when she knew you were Superman's child but she didn't figure out that I was Superman. She thought your mother had just had a fling."

Clark sipped his coffee again and Elle did too. She didn't know her Aunt Lucy very well and couldn't imagine living with someone she didn't know at that age. "Why didn't I stay with Grandma Kent?"

"The court felt that Lucy would be better. She was younger than your grandmother." Elle nodded. "After she put two and two together, she went to the prison to visit your mother. She asked her straight out if Superman was your father." Elle's eyes widened. "Of course your mother tried to put her off but Lucy kept asking, explaining what happened at the house."

"What did mother say?"

"I don't think she ever admitted it but the conversation was recorded and that recording made it up to Lex Luthor pretty quickly. Within a week, the federal government stepped in and took custody of you."

"This is so unbelievable," Elle responded. "I thought my childhood was bad…this is terrible."

"You haven't heard the worst of it yet," Lana said.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Metropolis

May 25, 2042

"When did this all take place, Father?" Elle asked.

"It began in July 2021. Pete was assassinated on the 22nd. Then…"

"Wait!" Elle interrupted. "July 2021? That's less than a month from when I left you and Mother. All this happened because I never came back?"

"Correct."

"But, why didn't I return to warn you?"

Clark frowned. "It's not that simple, Lara. When you travel forward in time, you cannot affect the events that take place from the time you leave to the point in the future in which you arrive." He paused and then began again. "When you left us to go to the future, the future continued on the path that was set when you left. You can return…you must now that you know the events that will unfold if nothing is done to divert them."

Elle's eyes grew misty. "I only wanted to talk to Mother because she wasn't around much when I was growing up," she said softly. "I've made the future worse."

"You did what I told you to do in another time," Clark replied. "You can't blame yourself for this future. You were trying to restore the future your mother learned about the night you were born." He took a deep breath. "It's what we all wanted."

She looked at Lana. "You said I hadn't heard the worst of it. What could be worse?"

"What they did to you; what they did to your father after they discovered he was Superman, Lara."

She looked at her father who looked defeated. "What did they do? I know they somehow took your powers; how?"

He looked down at his coffee that was now getting cold, thinking about the days when he could keep his coffee piping hot just with his eyes. Looking back up, he said, "Gold Kryptonite."

The color drained from his daughter's face. "My God…how did anyone know about that?"

"When Lex heard the recording of your Aunt Lucy talking to your mother, he ordered an investigation to see if the answer to your aunt's question was true. So a special investigative team from the FBI researched your birth record, located Emil Hamilton and took him in to custody for questioning. They heavily drugged him and under those conditions, he confirmed that you were my daughter and that Superman was the husband of Lois Lane-Kent." Elle looked mortified and Clark nodded, acknowledging her horror. "They also learned about Kryptonite in its various forms and the effect it had on me."

"Lex ordered the Department of the Interior to comb Smallville for all forms of Kryptonite," Lana offered. "They tore that poor town to shreds. My Aunt Nell's home was leveled and the land the Kent Farm stood on was seized by the government." She reached out and put her hand on Clark's. "They destroyed all the land in the area in their search for Kryptonite. They found some green, some blue and some traces of gold kryptonite."

"Lara, the government under Lex Luthor was ruthless; it still is," Clark added. "They kept me locked up without a trial, citing national security concerns. When your mother was killed by a group of inmates, there was nothing I could do. I had been moved into a special cell that was made for me with walls embedded with slivers of blue kryptonite. I was neutralized by it."

Clark sat quietly, reflecting on the events of the past 21 years. Lana spoke. "Your father was not even allowed to attend your mother's funeral."

"Why did they let you out?" she asked. "I mean, if they were going to keep you indefinitely without a trial, what changed?"

Clark looked at Lana and she continued. "You did," she responded. "The government had you locked up in a facility for years. They tested your abilities endlessly and then, when your powers really began to develop, they realized they didn't have an answer for that. They kept you powerless with blue kryptonite, like they had done with your father. But unlike your father, you were not raised under the influence of the Kent family morals and values. You were unpredictable and dangerous; you were a direct threat to those that had tested, probed and experimented on you. They knew what would happen if you ever broke loose from their control."

"They were in a conundrum, Lara," Clark interjected. "They couldn't test you any longer because they had to keep you subdued with blue kryptonite. So, they decided to remove the blue kryptonite and substitute it with green kryptonite."

"Why?" Elle asked and Clark didn't reply.

Finally, Lana replied. "They thought it would kill you."

"They didn't factor in that I was part human," Elle added.

Clark nodded. "You suffered for days, Lara. It is unfathomable what they put you through." He clenched his teeth. "And I was helpless to do anything about it."

Lana put her hand over Clark's and gently squeezed it. "After three days, they realized that the green kryptonite was not going to work. They withdrew it from the containment room they had you in and you began to regain your powers almost immediately."

"What you didn't know because you weren't raised by your mother or me was about black kryptonite. Since black kryptonite is not a natural form of the mineral, they never found any. They didn't know, nor did you, that superheating green kryptonite would form it." Clark's eyes narrowed. "At some point after you regained your powers, you used your heat vision in an attempt to destroy the green kryptonite but it only formed black. The scientists that had been testing you had no idea that the kryptonite you heated had transformed it. They attempted to stop you by using the blackened kryptonite only to split you into two entities."

"Your evil half killed several of the scientists and guards, destroyed the lab and escaped, leaving your good half abandoned," Lana continued. "Your evil half calls herself Elle."

Elle's eyes grew wide. "It's the name I use!"

"I know," Clark said nodding. "I remember your mother telling me that years ago." He looked at Elle. "For over six years they have been trying to capture your other half. For six years they have been helpless to do anything to stop you. Elle wreaks havoc in the world; everywhere in the world. But splitting you like that gave them no choice but to come to me for help."

"Is that why you're free and not still in prison?"

He nodded. "After about 6 months of trying to stop you, they asked me how to fix the problem they created. I told them that I could fix it but I needed to be released, I needed to have your good half with me and I needed kryptonite. They agreed to release me under one condition."

"Gold kryptonite," Elle murmured.

"Yes," he replied. "If I agreed to be exposed gold kryptonite to permanently neutralize my powers, they would release me and release you to me."

Tears welled in her eyes. Elle had thought that witnessing her father's steady decline in her own life was depressing. Seeing this version of her father was harder still. "Well, where is my good half now?"

"That's another story," Lana said. "They released your father but the state of Kansas wouldn't allow your father to have custody of you and the federal government would not intervene. You were still a minor at the time. Your father had just left prison after 13 years there. Between Lex and your other half, your father's image and reputation were ruined. Lex had turned the public against your father saying that Elle was an example of the future mankind would face if aliens were not controlled. He was a pariah; no one would associate with him. He was out of work, there were questions of his legal residency status, and no one could employ him. Under those circumstances, the state refused to let him regain custody of you." She smiled weakly. "I offered to marry your father so that he could regain custody of Lara." She paused. "It's no secret that I've always loved your father and I always considered your mother as one of my closest friends. She died protecting me, Lara. I know that I can't take her place but marrying and supporting him was the very least I could do to repay their sacrifices."

This time Clark took Lana's hand. "Once we were married, I gained custody of you and immediately contacted J'onn J'onzz. He came and retrieved you from us and the Justice League has been keeping you safe ever since. In fact," Clark added, "that's about the only contact the members have with one another these days; periodically handing you off from one member to another to keep you safe."

"So when I arrived tonight," Elle began, "you thought I was who? Elle?"

"Yes," Lana replied. "And I'm horribly sorry for hurting you."

Elle nodded. "I know, Lana. I know you wouldn't have done that under any other circumstances."

"Lara, even though Elle's done unspeakable things, she is still my daughter," Clark said. "I love her even if I cannot condone what she's done. But if Elle comes and we can subdue her with green kryptonite, I'll be able to have the police hold her until we can make arrangements for Lara to be returned. Then we can rejoin the two halves and at that point, get her free of this planet." He paused and then added, "Unless you can go back and change the course of this history."

"How, Father? Looking back from here, what's the convergence point? The last change I made caused this future to happen. Changing it would change the way you are now; maybe for the worse." She looked at Lana and noticed an odd expression on her face. "At least the world outside seems at peace."

"At peace? No," Clark reassured her. "You're confusing peace with fear. People fear the government. Through the years, people surrendered their liberty for security. What looks to be a peaceful existence is nothing more than compliance with horribly restrictive laws and rules…" He paused to keep his anger in check. "People are afraid, Lara. They've lost the passion for life that they once had before Luthor became a tyrant. The people of this country have been so intimidated and coerced into living like drones that they don't dare to live outside the boundaries set for them by Lex's decrees."

She frowned. "Then I need to go back immediately," she announced. "This future just cannot be allowed to happen."

"Yes; you do," Clark said. "The problem is that you'll go back and still not know where the convergence point is."

"What do you mean by convergence point, Clark?" Lana asked.

"It's the point where different timelines converge in the past. It's the point where the outcome of an event or decision triggers two unique futures. We have to figure it by tracing the events backward in two separate timelines until they intersect."

"We thought it was when President Ross decided to deviate from Luthor's plan. I told my parents about the future I grew up in and they believed that Luthor was the cause," Elle added.

Clark stood up. "Let me get some references and we'll try to figure it out before you leave." He plodded into the bedroom and Elle stood. She wandered out on to the terrace as Lana cleared the table and then joined her.

"Lara," she began. "I know this future has to change but before you leave, I need to tell you something." She stood next to Elle looking out at the eerily quiet city. "As horrible as it is, there is one bright spot for me: being married to your father. I did what I did to protect you and protect him but I also did it for selfish reasons." She paused, not sure where she was headed with her admission but felt compelled to explain herself. "I always envied your mother," she admitted. "I made some foolish choices when your father and I were young and in love. I thought I had to be his equal to be his soul mate. Your mother made it seem so easy and she never tried to be his equal in the things you know about Superman. She was always his rock to cling to without being a side-kick. I wished I had learned that earlier and things may have been different."

"Thank you," Elle replied unsteadily. "Father always told me that my mother was as special as he was; only in different ways." She paused and then continued. "But what are you trying to say?"

Lana voice waivered. "I'm trying to make you understand," she began, "that even though I know I'll never be what your mother was to him; I'm all he has in this existence now." She looked up at the black sky. "I don't know why it is important to that I tell this if it's all going to change, but I want you to know that I learned what your father needs from watching your mother. Things are different now and he needs a different kind of support but I try to be like your mother when it comes to being his rock." Tears leaked from her eyes and she quickly brushed them away and sniffed. "Even though this is a terrible future compared to the one you know, for me it's a blessing because I can be important in your father's life again."

"He hardly seems like my father anymore," she replied. "Now that I've seen them together through adult eyes, it's hard to imagine him like this. He looks so…" she trailed off.

"Defeated?"

"Yes," Elle replied. "Even as disillusioned as I remember seeing my father, he never was like this."

"Lara, did you know me in your past?"

"Yes. Right after my mother died you tried to… move in to replace her but you gave up. You had divorced from Presi…I mean Vice President Ross. You gave my mother the video file the day she was killed."

Lana flinched. "You don't think that I had anything to do…"

"No! But I think it was connected, Lana and so did you. I know you didn't purposely get my mother killed but I'm convinced it happened because you passed that file to my mother."

They stood together silently. Finally Lana spoke. "Lara, I want you to know that I wasn't trying to be…opportunistic…when it came to your father," she said in a very hushed tone. "While being here now makes me happy, it's obvious he's not happy at all. I married your father to help him get custody of you but that's not the only reason. I do love him, Lara…I always have. I wish I could be to him what your mother was but I'm not her."

Elle nodded silently and then froze. "Wait!" She looked at Lana and then turned to the interior of the apartment. "Father," she called out, "I think I may have figured out the answer!" Elle moved inside quickly and Lana followed at a slower pace.

Clark emerged from the bedroom with newspaper clippings in his hands. "You did?" he asked, a look of excitement on his face.

All three moved to the couch and sat; Elle between Lana and Clark. "When Mother died in my childhood, it was because she had just gotten the video file from Lana. In this future, she got the video file from Lana too. In each instance, getting the file from Lana led to Mother being killed."

Nodding, he thought for a moment. "I agree; that's clearly the action that created the divergence point." He pondered the matter some more. "The question now is that in the future she learned about the night you were born, what prevented her from getting that file from Lana?"

"Couldn't that be anything though?" Lana asked. "Maybe in that future, she was on another assignment the day you two came to the White House; one that had her somewhere else?"

"I can't imagine an assignment that important, Lana. Lois would have moved heaven and Earth to visit the White House." He paused a moment. "Even though we were all old friends, Lois was really excited that day. Being invited to the White House wasn't like being invited over to brunch by the friends next door." A lost smile briefly sailed across his face. "Lois would have had me pick her up from wherever she was at just to be able to visit you and Pete at the White House."

To that, Lana asked, "But what if it was an assignment where she was so visible that she couldn't explain being seen at the White House, Clark? I mean if she was in Paris to interview the French President, for example, she couldn't explain being seen at the White House the same day. Can you remember anything happening around that time that she could have been covering?"

"I was just there," Elle said. "There were plenty of events going on in the world but nothing I can think of that she would be involved in covering."

"But when you left, your mother already had received the file from me, right?" Lana asked. "Won't you have to go back to a point prior to that to keep her from getting the file?"

Clark nodded and Elle replied. "That seems easy enough…as long as I can time it right." She grimaced. "It was only a few days after you visited President Ross that they invited you to the White House and that's where Lana gave the file to Mother."

"So you'll have to intervene, Lara," Clark said. "You'll have to convince us that your mother cannot go to the White House and the reason why."

"Or at least convince her not to take anything from me," Lana added.

"That's right!" Clark agreed. "That might be an easier sell than trying to convince your mother not to go to the White House." He smiled again and he was animated for the first time since Elle had arrived. He almost seemed like the Clark Kent she had seen in the past; engaged and hopeful.

Elle stood. "Then I should go," she announced. Clark and Lana stood as well. "The sooner I get back, the sooner this future can be prevented."

Clark nodded and hugged his daughter. "I hope so," he whispered.

Lana hugged Elle but said nothing and Elle disappeared out through the terrace doors and streaked into the dark Metropolis morning. They watched and Lana took Clark's hand. "I know you want the future to change, Clark and I want it to change for you as well…for everyone's sake." She turned to face him. "But part of me is happy right where I am now; with you sharing your life with me and sharing your bed too. I know I'm not the one who would truly make you happy but Clark, you make me happy being with you. So before this future changes can we have one last night together?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Metropolis

June 16, 2021

Elle landed in a remote parking area near the Metropolis airport and then blurred to Lane-Kent apartment complex. She stood outside on the sidewalk opposite the building as she had done before. It was nearly 8 PM the night that her father would fly to Malaysia to deal with a terrorist act at the Orchid Garden Mall. _This is going to be confusing,_ she thought. _This is the night he returns early and we talk._ She struggled to remember what it was that her mother had told her that night.

She watched closely and glimpsed a streak that was all but imperceptible to the human eye; her father had just left. She entered the apartment complex and blurred up the stairs to the floor where her parents lived. Elle knocked on the door.

Lois looked at the video monitor mounted next to door and saw Elle standing in the hallway. She yanked open the door. "My God," she exclaimed as Elle walked in. "I was so worried that I'd never see you again!" She gave her daughter a strong embrace. "Your Dad just left," she added. "You probably knew that."

The young woman returned the embrace and held it longer than she had in the past and her mother sensed it. "I was here less than two days ago in my time," Elle replied as she released Lois. "I had to choose the right time to come."

"Do you want something to eat; are you hungry?" Lois asked.

"I am hungry," Elle replied. "But let me help you because there is a lot to talk about." She entered the kitchen with Lois. "And Father will be back sooner than you think."

"How does it all turn out?"

"It turns out great. He doesn't try to solve it by himself; he calls on the rest of the JL to help. No casualties; everyone and everything is saved."

Lois nodded. "Well, that would be a change. He's been taking on so much of the responsibility for intervening in things that happen in the world, it's a wonder the rest of the team hasn't retired." She smiled. "If everyone is in one piece, then he'll come back happy. Sometimes he can't possibly save everyone and those are the tough times for him. No one ever expects him to save everyone but he always feels guilty when he doesn't."

They pulled some leftovers out of the refrigerator and Elle warmed them up quickly. "Mother," she began, "there is so much to tell you and I'll wait until Father returns to hit the key points."

The comment stopped Lois in her tracks. "Wait! I thought you didn't want to talk to your father. You were afraid he'd be angry that you returned and interacted with me. He wanted me to stall you so he could talk to you too." She shrugged. "Mission accomplished, I guess," she said as she poured herself a glass of iced tea.

Elle grimaced. "That was before," she said. "I know better now; the things I worried about the last time we spoke aren't a concern anymore." She paused and then said, "But just so you know, this isn't the first time I've returned to this point in time." Lois stared at her with a perplexed look. "I came here once before; just about this time of the day. I know Father shows up before we expected him to arrive and we had a long talk about changing the future and ripple effects. The time I was here before I gave you and Father all the information about your death and what Lex Luthor was up to. Because of what I told you, Father and you took certain actions that I thought had solved the problem of your premature death. But when I returned to the future, it was even worse than during my lifetime."

"Whoa," Lois exclaimed. "Are you saying that you were here on this night once before?" Elle nodded slowly. "Okaaaaay," she resumed. "So whatever you told us about my death in the next few years didn't make things better because of what your father or I did; what we did made things worse?"

"Yes," Elle sighed. "But I think I know now what the thing is that causes the timeline you're in right now to deviate from the one you learned about the night I was born. It's a little complicated so I'd like to wait until Father returns so we can go through it together once."

Lois nodded. "This is confusing enough," she said. "You're probably right; wait until he gets back." They had carried the food and plates to the table and sat. "So, the altered future was worse. The bottom line there is we don't want to go that route, right?"

Nodding, Elle swallowed. "Right. And I think I've figured out what it is that causes things to go bad in this timeline and what caused it to be worse in the altered timeline." She speared a new potato with her fork. "Father had said that it's not something as trivial as turning right instead of turning left. He said that it had to be something significant; a significant turn of events that causes a divergence in timelines. I think I found that significant event so I'll go through the two futures and see if Father agrees. If so, we're still within the converged timeline and haven't reached the point of the action that causes the timelines to split." She popped the tiny potato in her mouth.

Lois watched her grown up daughter and it still seemed surreal. Glimpsing the future version of her daughter made her love little Lara even more. Elle was stunning and savvy but also vulnerable. She had come back to talk to her mother about a man; like her father at one time she was full of self-doubt. "Elle," Lois began, "you came to talk to me about a man." Elle nodded. "Changing the future might change that as well, you know?"

She swallowed. "I know. I've thought about that. When I returned to the future I wondered where he was and what he was doing at the time. But the future is so different from what I knew it to be, there was no point in trying to see him or find out what he was doing. When I explain to you what I learned, you'll understand."

Lois sipped her iced tea. "My point is you're risking changing that relationship in your life by having us change your past. What we already know will change it for you. What if everything changes back to the future I learned about; what about your relationship and the man in your life? Aren't you worried that it will change that as well?"

She thought for a moment and stared at her mother. "Father told me that he believed love always found a way. He said it found a way for him; that he found it in you. He told me that you had traveled to the near future once and while you were gone, he thought you had died and realized that an important part of him died when he thought you were gone forever. He replayed the moment he confessed his secret to you, telling me that it was the fear of losing you that made him want to tell you. He said simply that love had found a way to overcome his fears and allow him to let you fully in to his life." Lois smiled and Elle sighed. "So if it is meant to be; if it's the real thing, love will find a way, Mom – just like it did for you and Father."

"When he was telling you about that, did he also mention that I already knew his secret?"

Grinning, she cocked her head. "I think he left that part out."

She snorted. "Your father is a brilliant man in many ways except when it comes to recognizing signals women give off. He has always had a bit of a blind spot when it came to that."

Elle covered her mouth and giggled. "I've never heard anyone say Father had blind spots before!"

They laughed. "Well he does. He may be the most powerful being on the face of the Earth but he still has a lot to learn when it comes to women. It's one of the millions of things I love about him." She smiled and her mind drifted off to their past for a moment. "But he's right," Lois finally added. "If that man of yours is the one, anything that happens to change the course of the future won't change the fact that you'll end up together. Love does find a way when you're destined to find it." Her smile faded. "In fact, your father and I were discussing that not too long ago."

"You were?"

She swirled the iced tea around in the glass; ice tinkled against the sides. "Yes. I told him that after you were born…"

Lois' story was interrupted by Clark's return. "Don't go, Lara!" he cried out.

"She's not going anywhere Clark," Lois responded. "We were waiting for you to come back."

Clark relaxed. "Good. Let me get changed," he said and dashed into the bedroom.

Lois looked at Elle. "Do they have Monster Truck Shows in the future?"

Elle frowned and shook her head. "I'm not even sure what they are."

"Oh damn," Lois exclaimed. "We really need to fix that."

Clark reappeared and moved to where Lara was sitting, bent over and hugged her. "I was worried that if you saw me that you'd leave. Lois told me about…"

"Clark!" Lois interrupted. "You're dealing with old information. You've got some catching up to do. Sit down. Do you feel like some dessert, Elle?"

"Yes," she replied, "I'd love some."

Looking at Clark, "I know I don't have to ask you," she said and went into the kitchen and re-emerged with a pie that Martha had baked and three plates. Lois cut three pieces and distributed them and sat. She turned to Clark. "Just so you know, Elle has been here before."

"I know," Clark said frowning. "You told me that."

"No; that's not what I mean. She's been here at this time in her past before. She came back after some changes were made and rather than the changes improving things in the future, those changes made the future worse."

"Maybe not all the changes were for the worse," Elle began. "But when linked with other events, the future became far worse than you can imagine." She began first by telling him of the future she came from, how Lois was killed and what precipitated it all. Then she explained that she returned to this time in the timeline and that actions were taken and changes made that should have neutralized Lex Luthor's plan. "There was no nuclear launch but it didn't matter. Things got terribly worse." She described Pete's assassination and Luthor regaining the Presidency and declaring martial law. Then she explained what happened to her mother and father.

"Holy cow," Lois exclaimed. "So you're saying that could be in just a month or so?" Elle nodded. Turning to Clark, "We all need to figure this out. I'm not ready to go this soon," she said with a grimace. "And there aren't any Monster Truck Shows in the future either. That's not a future I want to see."

"No," Clark agreed, "Monster Truck Shows aside." He looked at Elle. "It sounds like you've analyzed some things if you said not all the changes were for the worse. What are you thinking?"

"It seems to me," she began, "that each time, Mom received a video file from Lana and there is commonality there. It seems that getting that file leads to her death. That seems like the divergence point in the timelines."

Clark rubbed his chin and thought about it. "There's certainly a consistent set of results that occur whenever she gets this video file you're talking about. It seems that it may be a trigger for the premature death she suffers."

"All the things that happen to you and I afterwards," Elle continued, "seem to spring from Mom's death. Those effects in turn affect mankind. The key is Mom not dying and the two of you continuing to influence humanity in your own ways. The thing that gets her killed is that video file."

"Can it be that simple?" she asked Clark. "I don't get a video file and the future is just what I learned about on the night Elle was born? Why wouldn't I have gotten it before?"

"You see," Clark said, "that's what I've been trying to figure out, Lois. The timeline that existed the night she was born changed at some point between that night and the moment you took the file from Lana." He looked at Elle. "Maybe it was the fact that Lana gave your mother the video file that got her killed but in the future your mother knew about, events would have progressed up to the point where Lana presented her the video file. Why didn't she take the file in that timeline?"

"Maybe she was on an assignment or something that kept Lana from giving her the file? All I know is that each time she gets the file, she dies and without her, everything changes for you, Father, and that affects the entire human race."

"Including you," Lois added.

They grew quiet, deep in thought. Clark finally broke the silence. "It's clear that certain things must change. I need to speak to Pete so that he doesn't become Lex's pawn the way he was in your original timeline, Lara. And now I can tell him what he's looking for; a video file that is embedded in the ending credits of 'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington'. I can intervene in the assassination attempt now that I know about it." He paused, mulling a plan in his head. "I could even keep an eye out from above and try to determine exactly who it was that plants the bomb and let his Secret Service track down the would-be assassin if it wasn't the Chinese national that was blamed in the alternate future." He frowned while sorting through things. "I think I'll also advise Pete not to surrender the server unless he's absolutely sure that it will be protected."

"Don't forget that he should only give the file to the authorities and absolutely no one else," Elle added.

"Right!"

"I think if things progress the way they are supposed to progress, we should avoid going to the White House if we're invited," Lois said. "I think we need to find an excuse or at least I need to find an excuse. I don't want to have anything to do with that video file."

Clark nodded. "I agree, Lois. If we're invited, I can go but you should probably stay here. I'll explain things to Pete and Lana if the invitation comes. Once that recording becomes a matter of public record, then I think it would be safe for you to visit."

Clark called Lana and later flew off to meet them both at the White House. Elle remained at the apartment with Lois. They moved to the couch and sat together, finishing off some coffee and remnants of Martha's strawberry pie. "So what did you do last time you were here…I mean, last time you were here this time?" she asked and rolled her eyes.

"You took me to Aunt Chloe's house. You and Father thought it would be better if I stayed there because of space and because of Grandma Kent."

"She's really your second cousin, I think," Lois interjected. "We call her Aunt Chloe for little Lara's sake."

Elle smiled. "It was nice. I learned a lot about Father before he met you and how you turned his life upside down when you showed up. Those were stories I had never really heard before." Her eyes grew misty. "I never really remember us having many of those type talks."

"You can stay here if you'd prefer."

Elle nodded and smiled. "I would. And don't worry about it confusing Grandma Kent. She bawled Father out for keeping her in the dark last time I was here."

Lois snorted. "That's your father for you. He's always trying to protect those he loves but doesn't realize how unnecessary it is. Your grandmother is as sharp as a tack; even at her age." Elle nodded but said nothing, leading Lois to wonder if Elle actually felt that way after Clark had left her all alone in the young woman's recent past. "Anyway, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you." She put down her coffee and turned to face Elle directly. "You call Clark 'Father'. It sounds so formal. Have you always called him that?"

With a look of surprise, Elle cocked her head and thought for a moment. "I think so. Well," she amended, "I think when I was a little girl I remember calling him Daddy but once I grew up, I've always called him father."

"Hmm." She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter that much. If that's what you're comfortable with, that's okay. It's just odd to me because whenever Clark spoke to Jor-El, it's what he called him…'Father'. It just strikes me as odd that he'd permit you to call him that."

"Jor-El? I've heard of him and I've even been to the Fortress once a long time ago; before Father destroyed it. But I really didn't pay much attention to what he called Jor-El. I always remembered Jor-El's voice was scary and you took me to explore the place."

Cocking her head, Lois asked, "You've only been there once?"

"That's all I can recall," she replied.

"Are you telling me that after I died your father never took you there?"

She shook her head. "After you died, Mom, he wasn't the same. He tried to be as normal in public as he had always been but in private, he was really withdrawn. That's why it's been so cool watching you two together at this time in your lives. These are the times I don't remember much. All I really remember is how much you two love each other but I don't remember…"

"Wait!" Lois interrupted. "You said you remember going there once, right?"

"Yes."

She frowned. "Do you remember how old you were when you went…roughly?"

Her mother's intensity piqued her interest. Something was clearly troubling her mother. "Okay…let me think," Elle said. She chewed her bottom lip for a moment. "I couldn't have been older than four and probably more like three and a half."

"About a year from now," Lois said absently. Elle nodded and remained quiet for a moment. She knew her mother was on to something and wanted to let her sort it out. "So about a year from now in your timeline, we all went to the Fortress together," she recounted and then remained silent for a moment. "You don't recall your father having to do anything to the Fortress before we could go in, do you?"

"Before we could go in to the Fortress; no. He had to do something with some crystals to make Jor-El talk to him."

"So we all flew into the Fortress together."

"Yes."

"No stopping outside to clear snow away or anything?"

"No."

"Hmm. Something changed." Lois narrowed her eyes. "Right now, the Fortress is buried in snow. Your father buried it because he had a very strong disagreement with Jor-El."

"About what?"

"About the way Jor-El had treated me; but that's not important right now," Lois replied. "What is important is that in your memory, we all visited the Fortress and it didn't need to be uncovered which means Clark never had that disagreement with Jor-El and never buried the Fortress when you were growing up."

Elle nodded. "But between now and a year from now, isn't it possible that a crisis arises and Father uncovers the Fortress because he really needs to talk to Jor-El?"

Lois nodded. "I suppose that could happen too." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "But I don't know why he would take you and I there if he made peace with Jor-El just because of a crisis," she added.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

June 17, 2021

Metropolis

Clark returned to find Lois in bed and Lara asleep on the couch. He changed and as he crawled into bed, Lois awoke. "How did it go?" she asked sleepily.

"Good…very good, in fact." He rolled to his side. "I see Lara's stayed. I'm glad that she did."

"Yes; she was exhausted. I think she said that she had gone without sleep for about a day." She yawned. "We were talking and before I knew it, she was sound asleep." Gradually emerging from her sleep, she rolled onto her side to face him and pressed him for details about his meeting with Pete.

"At first, Pete was reluctant to believe that Lex would be involved in something as dangerous as ordering the murder of a Supreme Court Justice or launching a nuclear attack on China. But once he listened and thought about it for a while, the three of us went to the private library where the video file was kept. We all watched it. I think that's what convinced him that everything I told him would happen if he didn't intervene."

Lois suppressed a yawn. "So you saw it? Was it pretty convincing?"

"Uh huh. There was no question about it. The only thing that you couldn't tell was who the other man in the room was."

"Oh my God, I wish I could have seen it. That's real history you witnessed, Clark." She lay quietly for a moment, imagining what the video revealed and how Pete felt seeing it. "It's good that you knew where the file was. I'm sure that helped dispel any doubts he had. Did you mention his assassination?"

"Yes, and I told him I would not let that happen. So we'll see how things transpire from this point on."

"I hope he's going to have the Justice Department take control of the video file?"

He nodded. "Yes. He's going to have them come and make recordings from the private server it's on. He said he didn't trust the Attorney General so he was going to replace him and his deputy before they make recordings though. He also said that he would prohibit anyone other than Lana from accessing that room until the copies were made and at least one of the copies was in the hands of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and Vice Chairman. According to what Pete says, neither of them is particularly fond of Lex Luthor."

"Wow. It sounds like Pete knows what he's doing."

"Pete mentioned one more person that he wanted to provide a copy of the file to: your father."

"The General?" she gasped.

"Yes. Pete felt that your father was an unimpeachable patriot who would ensure that no matter what, the file would never be lost. But I told him giving it to your father would put you too close to the danger and I asked him not to do that. He understood and found another former general that he trusted just as much."

She sighed, reached out and touched his cheek. "You did good, Smallville. This is another one of those times that the world will never know what you prevented."

"You know, once Pete alerts the Justice Department, I'm going to have to find a way to stay out of work for a while," he said. "Can you think of something? I want to nearby to keep an eye out."

Over the years since he shared his secret, Lois was in charge of making excuses for him. His inability to find convincing reasons to disappear or be absent for extended periods when something major demanded his full attention had pressed Lois into duty as his cover. She had a natural proclivity for developing logical and believable excuses. Scooting closer, she put her arm across his shoulder, pulled herself close and kissed him. She smiled. "Oh, I'll come up with something. I know; I'll say that you hurt your back."

"Hurt my back? How?"

Lois snickered, wriggled out of her nightgown, pressed her body against his and re-engaged his lips without another word. Clark rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him in the process. He ran his hands through her thick dark locks, pulling her deeper into a passionate kiss. His hands began to wander down her sides and Lois moaned as she began writhing and grinding herself into him. Within moments they began silently making love, careful not to awaken either of their two sleeping daughters that shared the same name.

June 18, 2021

Washington, D.C.

The White House Press Corps had been alerted the day before that the press conference scheduled to announce the President's nominee for the vacant Supreme Court Justice position would be postponed until 3 PM on Friday. The significance of a Friday afternoon press conference was not lost on the media veterans in the room. The spoke quietly among themselves prior to the President's arrival, postulating that some fatal flaw had been found in the President's choice and that no nominee would be named. Friday afternoons had long been the moment of choice for announcing politically embarrassing, disappointing or just plain bad news.

Pete arrived at the podium after the Press Secretary made some preliminary remarks. To his right stood two men that were unknown in the high-visibility world of the Washington Beltway. He introduced his nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy; a federal circuit court judge from Arizona named Raymond Diaz. He then announced that Attorney General Justin Peaks and Deputy Attorney General David Slater had submitted their resignations the day before and that he was tapping Kansas State Attorney General Stephen Nielsen to serve as the nation's 'Top Cop'. The President followed up by saying that Attorney General Nielsen would select his own Deputy Attorney General.

The announcements left the mainstream media outlets floundering, fumbling for information about Pete's Supreme Court nominee and his Attorney General appointment that were so far below the radar that no news outlet had any relevant information about the men. As the picture became clearer over the weekend, both choices appeared to be exceptional men of high character and ethics.

Clark and Lois watched the press conference on their computers at work, periodically stealing glances at one another with satisfied grins. As the conference ended, Lois sat back, laced her fingers behind her head and smiled. "I hope this means that Pete's put a definitive end to Lex's grand scheme."

He nodded. "I think he's definitely derailed it for a while. If I know Pete, both of these choices are good men and I'm sure over the coming weeks, it will prove what a good judge of character Pete is and define the standards his administration will maintain."

"So does that make him a bigger target?"

"Is there a bigger target than the President of the United States?" He shrugged. "I think once Pete gets the AG on that server in his library, Lex is going to be busier trying to save himself than trying to eliminate Pete."

"I hope you're right."

He paused. "I'm still going to be flying cover for Pete and Lana though."

Lois nodded. "As I told you the night before last, you did good, Smallville." She smiled adoringly at her special husband. "Now, let's get finished up here and go to home early; we should celebrate. You take Lara and Mom to the farm and you, Elle and I should go out to dinner. We shouldn't send Elle back to the future on an empty stomach."

"Hmm," Clark said, cocking his head and nodding. "That sounds like a good idea to me. What do you have in mind?"

"Are you kidding; steak, Farmer John…a good one too. Something nice and thick with a loaded baked potato!"

"It's nice not having to wonder if anyone recognizes you," Elle commented, cutting off a bite-sized piece of almond-crusted flounder.

"If you find anyone staring at you," Lois replied, "it's only because you're so attractive." Elle smiled, embarrassed by the compliment. "You are! If things were different, you'd have a career in TV or movies."

"She looks just you, Lois," Clark offered.

"Maybe a little; but she's far prettier. Those eyes of hers are just incredible." Lois cut a slice from her thick USDA Choice New York Strip. "Any woman would kill for those eyes." She popped the slice of medium rare steak in her mouth and chewed.

The dined in the small but upscale bistro that they last visited the day the JL surprised Lois with a baby shower. It was private, dark and too expensive for the Kents to dine at regularly. Tonight was a celebration for them; the three of them. Getting the future back on track and preventing the death of his childhood best friend was worth the cost to Clark. They all felt confident that the actions taken over the last two days would definitely preserve the future that Lois had learned about over two years ago.

Clark quietly watched the two women. To him it was like watching Lois and her doppelganger. Their subtle mannerisms, appearance and ease with which they interacted made them seem like sisters rather than mother and child. Although he had not spent nearly as much time with Lara as Lois had, it was clear that she brought out something in their daughter that had been dormant for some time. Lara laughed at stories Lois shared and grew more animated in conversations about life, work and love.

It was equally interesting to note the dissimilarities between the two. Lois was brasher, had an amazing sense of humor and was nowhere close to being as reserved as Lara. Lois was passionate in life and Lara was not. He realized that the difference was a result of Lois not being in Lara's life long enough to pass on those traits. It caused him a moment of self-evaluation. Lara was the product of his influence on her life. He couldn't help but wonder what Lara would be like with Lois there to raise her alongside of him. How much different would she be and how much more similar to her mother would she be?

Regardless of the outcomes in the future, Clark made a pact with himself that he would never let his own grief or his purpose on Earth result in Lara being ignored or relegated to merely a responsibility.

"Are we boring you, Farmer John? You're sitting there like one of those Easter Island statutes." Lois declared and Lara snorted. "Look alive, Smallville," she said and playfully punched him in the shoulder. "This is supposed to be a celebration."

Clark grinned. "No; I'm just enjoying listening to you two."

"Well get in the game, Clark!" she chided. "I'm sure there's something you can contribute; maybe about fixing a tractor or something." Lara burst into laughter. When she did a strange expression crossed his face and Lois noticed it immediately. She couldn't put a finger on what it meant but something had affected him and she shifted gears. "Tell her about the time when we first met!" She grinned mischievously and bit down on her lower lip.

"Oh yes; please! I've heard that story," Elle said excitedly, "but not for a long time. It was something about Mom having an accident in the corn field and you rescuing her?"

"Who told you that tall tale?" Lois blurted out.

"Father did."

Lois cocked her head. "It sounds like revisionist history to me. Huh!" She wagged her head. "It appears that there were some details omitted in the version you got." Clark smiled sheepishly. "Go ahead, Honey, you start and I'll fill in the details that you may have forgotten."

"I can't remember ever laughing so much," Elle announced when they returned to the apartment. "I'm going to hate returning to the future."

"But isn't there someone special waiting for you back there?" Lois asked.

Elle nodded. "Yes, but I can get back to him any time. There's something special here too."

Clark put an arm around Elle's shoulders. "I know this is what you've missed most of your life, Lara. Hopefully things will have worked out the way they should have and when you return, you can take off that ring and all the memories of the life you've had will be pushed away by memories of a better past." He kissed the top of her head. "The future is your time though, not here. There's too much potential for you to do something that will alter the future in a negative way if you stay."

"Can't she stay the weekend, Clark? We can go to the farm where she won't have to interact with anyone outside of the family." Clark took a deep breath.

"I was hoping to go to the Daily Planet for just a little while," Elle added. "I wanted to meet the people that I've heard of for years but never really got the chance to see."

"You've never been to the Planet?" Lois asked.

"Not when all the characters were there. I've been there recently but all the people you talked about tonight; Perry White, Cat Grant and Jimmy Olsen…none of them were there." She looked at her father. "I'd love to meet them. I've heard about them my whole life but…" she trailed off.

Clark frowned but Lois intervened. "Clark! If we've learned anything in all this it's that she can control herself. She watched me get killed and didn't intervene. I don't see how meeting a few people would change the course of history."

"That's just the problem; you don't know how it could change things. I don't think it's a good idea, Lois." He looked at Elle. "We can spend the weekend at the farm," he said. "But I'm sorry, Lara; going to the Planet could be a serious mistake." Elle nodded. "After the weekend, you should go back to the future and determine if everything is on track. If you're right and your mother getting that file from Lana was the divergence point, you can return and let us know. Then in the altered future, you probably will have met all those people."

Lois nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, your father's right. Besides, even though I'd love to see Cat's face when you showed up, I'm not sure that meeting Jimmy would be such a good idea. He has a hard enough time focusing on his work. If he met you, he'd be bugging me and your father every day about when you're coming back to visit."

They stayed up for a while longer until Lois began yawning. "I guess it's about time for me to turn in," she announced. "You two girls can stay up talk if you want but I need my sleep."

"I'll turn in too," Clark said.

Elle agreed. "We have all weekend to talk." She stood and hugged her mother and father, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for dinner, Father. It was great."

"It was nice we could spend it together," he replied, giving her an extra long hug. He released her. "Is that couch comfortable enough?"

She smiled. "I can hover if it's not."

They turned in to bed and after a few moments of laying in silence, Lois turned to Clark. "Tonight there was a moment that I saw something cross your face. It was when I was ribbing you about getting involved in the conversation. Was something wrong, Honey?"

"It was a moment of realization, Lois. I sat there watching you two and seeing how happy she was and how alive she seemed to be. I thought about her personality when I first met her; how reserved and withdrawn she seemed to be." He paused. "I realized that she was my finished product and it wasn't a very good one."

"Clark, how can you say that? She's amazing."

"She's amazing because she's spent time with you, Lo. The difference in her between the first time I met her and tonight was incredible. She seemed so engaged; so alive and I know the reason that she wasn't before."

Lois reached out and touched his face. "But she's so good inside and out. She has all the Kent values and ethics; it's what makes her so special, Clark."

"But she lacks your passion for life; for living, Lois. That's what I sat there watching. In just a few days, you've brought her out of her shell and while she has great ethics and values, she lacks the zest for life that you have. I saw it tonight in her like some latent ability and it was painfully obvious to me what I lacked as a parent to her."

"Oh Sweetheart," she replied, kissing him lightly on the lips. "I think you did a wonderful job with her. A parent couldn't want more from a child." She pushed a curl back from his forehead. "The fact that she has a latent zest for life, as you put it, is because you kept it there for her."

He lay silent for a moment and then turned to her. "The night I asked your father for your hand in marriage he told me something that I apparently forgot. He told me that being involved in the rush of battle and saving lives made coming home and doing the simple things difficult. He said he was proud to have served his country and even got to be a hero a few times but that it was the simple things that made us all human; taking a walk with your Mom, dancing with her, talking to you and Lucy. He said that if he had to do it all over again, would have spent more time with his family."

"The General said that?"

He nodded. "And watching Lara tonight, I can see that it's something that I didn't do, Lois. I got the chance to see the result of how I spent those years of her life and it's exactly what your father told me but I didn't learn. The thing is, in a way I will get to do it all over again but I won't make the same mistakes." He pulled her close and kissed her. "No matter what the future holds, I won't forget to do those simple things for you or for Lara."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Metropolis

May 25, 2042

The sun had set in Metropolis as Elle banked and turned unseen through the early evening skies. She viewed the activity below that appeared far different than she had seen the last time she returned to this time and different from the time she had left. The city looked brighter, busier and more alive than she ever recalled it being. Light vehicle traffic wound through the city to the sounds of street musicians and the occasional car horns. People crowded the sidewalks moving in unpredictable patterns and disappearing in random doorways.

Elle hovered, listening to the sounds of the city. There was laughter, light conversations, serious discussions and the occasional courtesies arising from too many people crowding the streets and periodically colliding with one another. There were no sounds of anger or strife; just the sounds of a content populace going about its business of living their lives. She smiled and a thought came to her.

Acting on that thought, she flew slowly over the area she knew as Suicide Slums. The sight amazed her. Gone were the ramshackle tenements and dilapidated apartment complexes. Gone were the hulks of abandoned cars, stripped of their usable parts and rusting in treacherous alleyways. The urban blight of unused space covered with broken asphalt and weeds had disappeared. Graffiti had been replaced by pleasant-colored paint on newer, modern buildings. The city had reclaimed Suicide Slums, razed the old 30 square block area and in its place stood fresh apartments with terraces and courtyards in which occupants mingled, grilled food, and ate at picnic tables. Small groceries, casual restaurants and specialty stores filled the gaps between the urban living edifices, making the old Suicide Slums a desirable address for young singles and families.

She landed in a darkened parking area behind an Italian bistro with café tables on the sidewalk out front. Pulling her hair back into a bun and donning glasses, she walked out onto the street to experience the change. She stepped from the parking lot entrance onto the sidewalk and stood, admiring the transformation that had occurred.

She felt a nudge from behind her and turned to see a small boy walking with his parents. "Say 'Excuse me'," the mother said as she took her child by the hand. The man apologized for his son as the boy stared at the face of the striking woman in glasses. Elle smiled as the young family continued on and she moved closer to the wall of a woman's clothing store.

Unlike the unnaturally ordered existence she had last seen, the street was dotted with people coming and going in an area that no one would have purposely stepped foot in when she grew up. Couples holding hands and stopping to window shop along the way to or from dinner was a sight that she believed Suicide Slums had never held before. Elle was growing increasingly certain that this was the future her mother had learned of on the night of her birth.

Among the din of traffic, street music and conversation, the one thing she suddenly realized that she had not heard since she returned was a siren. Not a police, ambulance or fire rescue vehicle had sounded its siren since she returned. Growing up, a siren could be heard in Metropolis at least once an hour and often more frequently. She had been back for nearly thirty minutes and had not yet heard one.

She began walking back to the parking lot into which she had descended and encountered people leaving the restaurant for their cars. She lingered a bit until they had departed, then removed her glasses and let down her hair. She rocketed up into the sky and headed for the terrace apartment of her parents. Lest she be disappointed again, Elle changed her destination, banked and flew to the Daily Planet, swooping into an underground public parking area a few blocks away. She emerged with hair pulled back and glasses on, walking quickly to the Daily Planet building.

Entering the revolving doors, she found the lobby vacant. The bank of elevators required an access card and instead, she strolled about the lobby that had become a museum of sorts for the greatest newspaper on the planet.

Old manual typewriters and stubby used pencils with pocket notebooks were displayed next to aging black and white photographs of the Daily Planet bullpen from the late 1950s, followed by old IBM electric typewriters and photos from the 1960s and 1970s.

She saw old articles written by her mother and father among the many that were on display in the first decade of 2000. Prominently displayed in one of the many glass display cases was the article titled, "I Spent the Night with Superman"; the article in which her mother revealed to the world his origins and renamed him from 'The Blur' to 'Superman'.

There were framed pictures within the display cases showing members of the Daily Planet staff receiving prestigious literary awards and Pulitzers, including those of her mother and father. An article penned by Clark Kent caught her eye. It was beneath a headline that read, "Luthor Arrested For Murder". The article was dated August 10, 2021.

The next display case contained old computers, cellular telephones and laptops set among other front pages from the Daily Planet. One of the headlines that caught her eye proclaimed "Ross Wins Re-Election in Landslide". A photo on another front page credited to Jimmy Olsen showed her mother and father among the guests in the receiving line at the Inaugural reception in which Pete and Lana Ross greeted guests at the White House. The article was dated January 20, 2026; twenty months before her mother was killed in her lifetime.

A wave of relief passed over Elle as she proceeded over to the next display case. Articles and newer iPads and iPhones lay among the papers and photos. "Justice League Saves the Day" proclaimed a headline dated March 4th, 2032. The article was penned by Lois Lane and Clark Kent. The next paper's headline read, "Dow Jones tops 40,000" with photos from inside the New York Stock Exchange. More framed photos rested inside the display case and Elle caught glimpses of her mother and father among those in the pictures. The final newspaper in the final display case trumpeted the completion of the restoration of the downtown area previously known as Suicide Slums. The article was written by her father, dated September 12, 2039.

On the wall above the array of display cases were photos of past Daily Planet editors aligned chronologically with the decades represented in each of the display cases. At the very end was a photo of her mother. Below was a small brass plate reading, "Lois Lane-Kent, Editor in Chief" with the years listed as "2040 - ".

_Mom is the Editor of the Daily Planet? Then she's alive!_, she realized. A broad smile crossed her face and she dashed out of the lobby and blurred through the streets of Metropolis faster than she ever recalled running. Upon reaching the apartment building she paused to check for onlookers and finding none, Elle launched herself onto the garden terrace of the Kent family apartment.

July 21, 2021

Outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada

Night had fallen hours before but the absence of sunlight did not seem to temper the heat. It was in the mid-90's and dry when J'onn ordered the team into position surrounding a sizable industrial park that had been purchased by one of Bruno Mannheim's lieutenants almost ten months earlier. They watched from low rock outcroppings as vehicles exited an industrial park and disappeared in the direction of the bright lights of Las Vegas. Those vehicles were later replaced by a procession of limousines and luxury sedans that made their way into the recently vacated parking lot outside a warehouse resting at the back of the facility. Over the span of four hours, clients were shuttled in piecemeal fashion to avoid raising suspicion. Mannheim had developed the process of shuttling special clients into the desert; only a handful in the first hour of nightfall and then gradually increasing in numbers.

The presence of average vehicles implied that others also attended the events held at the industrial park-turned-arena. Bruce Wayne and Hal Jordan had spent the last three weeks learning the procedures used to assemble special clientele, aided by Diana and Shayera working from the inside of Granny's home for unwed mothers.

In reality, none of the women in Granny Goodness' home were mothers; most were young prostitutes that had been recruited by Mannheim's crime syndicate to learn martial arts and exotic conjugal skills with the promise of untold fortune for those who excelled. A cadre of exceptional female fighters rotated through the training grounds, possessing seemingly inhuman skills that surpassed those of the recruits. Those who lacked ability in either category ended up stripped of all memories of Granny's home and deposited on the streets of large urban cities around the country. Those who excelled in conjugal skills remained as 'hostesses' during fight nights.

Men of wealth and power from around the world had secretly visited the non-descript warehouse for nearly four months; beginning with a handful of industrialists and magnates from Europe and the Middle East. By word of mouth, the clientele had grown to nearly 150 for the Wednesday night event.

Four nights each week the arena featured two hours of female mixed martial arts bouts, preceded by a hospitality period in which the conjugally-gifted 'mothers' served as hostesses; mingling with the clientele and earning 'their keep'. Wednesday nights were special however. After regular bouts that began at 9 PM, special bouts had been scheduled. Those special bouts featured Furies fighting the most gifted recruits in three one-minute rounds and most often ended quickly with the recruit face-down in the arena with severe injuries or brain-damaged. The handful of recruits that lasted the three rounds became Granny's 'elite team'.

The Las Vegas Boxing Commission had sanctioned the fight club, aided in large part by the influence Mannheim's syndicate. The Wednesday night 'Specials' however had never been revealed to the Commission; hence the need for secrecy. At the conclusion of the two-hour fights, the arena was emptied as usual and the club was vacated by all but a few VIPs that had arrived early. VIPs were always shuttled into adjacent facilities within the industrial park by way of underground passageways that led to 'hospitality rooms' where alcohol and hostesses awaited. There they spent the next two hours as all signs of activity ceased before the special events.

Two women, Dina Prater and Shana Howard had quickly become standouts among the recruits and Granny was anxious to pit them against her lesser Furies. Demonstrating advanced martial arts skills upon their arrival at the home, Granny promoted them to her elite team within ten days of becoming residents.

Diana and Shayera had exhibited the fighting skills and attitude that won Granny Goodness favor. After a ten-day exhaustive investigation into their backgrounds, Granny was convinced that she had found her next two elite Furies. Excited over the finds, she exposed them to the secret operations promising them glory and life-long comforts if they could withstand the 'final challenge': besting a cadre member in special MMA bouts. To raise the anticipation, Granny promised a special guest would be in attendance for their final challenge; the director of their elite team's operations known only as 'Mr. D'.

The intelligence that Diana and Shayera could gather from the older recruits led them to discover that 'Mr. D' was a man named DeSaad. Mr. D was reputedly well-connected with international government agencies that routinely employed the talents of Granny's Elite Furies, paying hefty riches for their unique services.

Clark and J'onn had met with the group two weeks after their first meeting in Seattle. It was determined then that Mannheim was indeed reaping the profits from the fight club proceeds while Granny was recruiting on Earth. The partnership was a strained one though, formed out of necessity. Bruno Mannheim never set foot in the fight club facilities, opting to let his underlings manage the business end of the arrangement which included funding Granny's home. Oliver had devoted the last two weeks to tracing bank accounts in the byzantine structure of Mannheim's Intergang organization. Over the past six months, millions of dollars had been disbursed into hundreds of accounts in shell corporations, all under the control of Mannheim. However, no one had yet determined if he had an objective beyond acquiring more resources and power for some future operation.

The plan they developed was simple: raid the club on a Special Event night, expel Granny and her minions from Earth, disrupt a major financial operation of Mannheim's, and free the unfortunate women that had fallen under Granny's mind control. Their plan was accelerated once Diana had reported that DeSaad would be arriving on the 21st of July.

A debate ensued between Clark, J'onn and Bruce regarding his involvement. In their opinion, Clark should remain alert in Washington for a potential assassination attempt against President Pete Ross. They felt that Granny Goodness and DeSaad were formidable but certainly not more important than protecting Pete. With Diana and Shayera working from the inside, aided by Hal and Bruce on site as clientele, J'onn, Oliver and Bart would be more than capable of accomplishing the operation. All agreed that Superman needed to provide cover for Pete and Lana Ross if an assassination attempt was planned against them. "If we need you. we'll get word to you Kal-El," J'onn said. "But at this point, it looks like something we can handle. What we cannot handle is a reversal of the progress President Ross has made in relations with China." Both Oliver and Bruce knew the price that could ultimately be paid if the chain of events that Clark had earlier told them about was not broken.

"Protect the President," Bruce agreed. "We'll have this thing mopped up well before the sun rises." Oliver nodded solemnly.

Clark hesitantly conceded that Pete was a priority for him. Ultimately, it was his concern for mankind's future but Lois was part of mankind and he could not imagine his life without her in it. Although the chain of events had been broken by Lois never receiving the video file that Pete recovered, they all believed that Lex returning to power remained a threat as long as he was free and Pete was President.

"I'll remain on the East Coast then," Clark replied. "For Lex's plan to work, he has to kill Pete and Madam Yu. Once they're both safe, I'll come out and assist with any loose ends."

"There won't be," Oliver replied. "We'll probably be finished before you are."

July 22, 2021

Metropolis

"Miss Lane," Jimmy called as the elevator doors began to close. Lois reached out and tapped the 'open door' button on the panel and the doors retracted. Jimmy rushed in and pushed the button for his floor. "How is it that CK got the assignment to cover the Taiwanese visit at the White House and you're still stuck here in Metropolis?"

Lois smiled. "The oldest reason in the book, Jimmy: childcare issues. Clark's mother hasn't been feeling well and we didn't want to burden her with Lara this week."

"I thought you were throwing him a bone."

"Fat chance, Jimbo. I love Clark but this is business. If it wasn't for childcare issues, I would have been covering the state visit." She grinned. "Lara comes first."

"Ouch!" Jimmy exclaimed. "Work, Lara; I hope CK ranks in there somewhere."

"That's just the thing, Jimmy," she began, "as long as he has to compete for his place in the pecking order, we get along just fine. If he ever felt comfortable that he was a priority for me, our whole relationship would probably fall apart."

"That's harsh," he commented.

"Hey, it wasn't me who fell all over herself for his attention now, was it?"

Jimmy shrugged. "I guess not," he replied. "But I seem to recall a few times that I thought you seemed jealous, Miss Lane. When Miss Grant first arrived and she was hitting on CK, you seemed pretty defensive."

"Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy; that was an act," Lois lied. "I knew Clark was crazy about me but he was so insecure about acting on his feelings that I had to throw him a lifeline once in a while. If he thought I didn't care, maybe he would have ended up with Cat. No one deserves that."

"So you did like him all along!"

She rocked her head back and forth, eyes sparkling and a sly grin on her face. "Of course, Jimmy; even when I was busting his chops. I always thought Clark was a good man even if he was a little challenged by the pace of a big city in the beginning. A girl doesn't meet a guy like Clark every day and it would be foolish to ignore what qualities he has. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to change my ways. He fell in love with me for who I am; it wouldn't be fair to him for me to change. We may be married but we're always in competition – unfair to him as that might be."

May 25, 2042

Metropolis

Tears welled in Elle's eyes as she glimpsed her mother standing in the kitchen, reaching in to the refrigerator. _I've done it_, she thought. _Mom's alive and once the ring comes off, all the memories of growing up with her will flood in. _She anxiously twisted the ring on her finger, resisting the urge to remove it. Ever since learning that a future had existed in which she had her mother and father growing up; there was little else that Elle could think about. Her concern for her boyfriend at Wayne Interprises had rapidly withered after the revelation that her past and her future could have been vastly different had her mother lived.

Lois withdrew a carton of ice cream from the freezer, set it on the counter, retrieved a large spoon and began eating it. _Grandma Kent wouldn't approve_, she though and suppressed a giggle.

From the bedroom, her father appeared and he strolled into the kitchen, put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek from behind. "Careful with that," he said. "Too much of it will clog your arteries," he warned. Her mother smiled but did not respond as he dug in the refrigerator and withdrew a plastic jug of milk. He retrieved a glass from the cupboard and poured himself a glass. "Low fat is still the best way to go," he added, putting the jug back in the refrigerator and closing the door. He leaned against the kitchen counter, facing her mother. "Is something troubling you?"

"No," she replied but Elle sensed her mother was not being truthful. "I'm just tired; that's all."

"Well, you should get some sleep when you're finished," her father replied and left her mother standing in the kitchen, head bowed. Taking a deep breath, she shoveled another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth, replaced the lid on the carton and replaced it in the freezer. She rinsed the spoon off in the sink and looked up, spotting Elle.

She cocked her head, squint her eyes, and suddenly a smile lit up her face. "Elle!" she exclaimed.

Elle smiled and hurried in to the apartment, meeting her mother at the entrance to the kitchen. They embraced. "It's so wonderful to see you," Lois said. "I've been waiting for you to return." She hugged her daughter fiercely.

"Mom, I'm so relieved to see you," Elle gushed. "I thought I'd never see you alive at this point in the future!"

Lois stiffened at the comment and pushed back. "Wait," she said and examined her at half-arm's length. "You're the Elle from the past?" she whispered quizzically, wide-eyed.

Elle beamed and nodded, tears filling her eyes.

"Elle?" her father's voice called from behind her and she turned to see her father standing behind her with a small milk moustache. He nodded and reluctantly hugged her, stiffening and unemotional. "This is a surprise. What are you doing here?"

"I came to see if everything had finally worked out; if the changes worked."

Clark frowned disapprovingly. "What do you mean, Elle? What 'finally worked out'?"

Instantly sensing that something was not right, Elle stammered for an answer. "I…uh…meant with..."

"My job at the Planet," Lois replied quickly. "She was worried that I'd have trouble adjusting to working there…that's all."

Clark donned a conciliatory smile. "Oh, I see. Well, it's good to see you, Elle. Are you planning on spending the night?"

Nodding, Elle replied, "If it's okay."

"Of course it's okay," he answered, "as long as you two girls don't stay up all night chattering." He looked at Lois. "Lara was just saying how tired she was and we do have work in the morning." He looked back at Elle, "So keep that in mind, okay?" Confused, Elle nodded and Clark hugged her again, less stiffly this time but with far less warmth than she expected. "I'm going to turn in," he announced. "I'll look forward to hearing what you've been up to when I get home from work tomorrow," he said as he began to leave. He stopped and turned back to her. "I hope you'll stay for dinner."

"Sure," Elle replied.

"Great. Well, good night!" Clark replied and disappeared into the bedroom.

Elle stared for a moment and then turned to her mother. "Did he call you Lara?"

Tears sprung up in Lois' eyes and she nodded, looking down at the floor. "I'm afraid you have some catching up to do, Elle."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

May 25, 2042

Metropolis

"Catching up?" Elle asked incredulously.

"Shhh," Lois replied, wiping the tears that had brimmed and coursed down her cheeks. "Wait until your father goes to sleep. It's…hard to talk about…and weirder than you think." She forced a brief smile.

Elle's mouth nearly gaped. She shook her head and her eyes grew misty. In a hushed tone she muttered, "But everything seemed so perfect in Metropolis."

Pain building inside her, Lois pulled Elle close to her and hugged her warmly. Fighting the lump that had formed in her throat, she whispered hoarsely in her ear, "When he goes to sleep we'll talk and I'll explain it all." She released her daughter and sniffed, began prattling about the kitchen until the light went out in the master bedroom. She waited a few minutes longer and then said, "He's asleep by now. Let's go into the other bedroom."

Extinguishing the lights in the kitchen and living area, Lois headed for the bedroom, followed by Elle. On her way there, Lois closed the door to the room where Clark slept and then flipped on the light in Elle's bedroom. Two twin beds sat side-by-side in the room. "Two beds?" Elle remarked. "Do you sleep here?"

"Yes," Lois replied. She sat on one bed and took off her slippers, gesturing for Elle to sit on the other. "I've been sleeping in this room for almost twenty-one years."

"What?" Elle shook her head as if to clear it but there was no mistaking what her mother had just said. "So for over twenty years you and Father have slept apart? Why?"

Leaning forward, she rested her forearms on her legs and looked into her daughter's wide, confused eyes. "Let's get the easy questions out of the way first, okay? The explanation for them is a bitch! Just ask away."

A troubled frown crossed her face and she mimicked the posture of her mother. "Why are you two sleeping in separate rooms?" she began.

"Because your father doesn't know that I'm his wife. He thinks I'm you."

"Me?" she responded in shock, drawing upright. "Then who does he think I am?"

"He thinks you're my daughter, Elle." Lois replied matter-of-factly.

"But I am your daughter."

"But your father believes you are my daughter with Superman; his step-daughter."

"Wait," Elle replied, thinking it through for a moment. "Does that mean Father doesn't know he's Superman?"

"Not for twenty-one years." Elle looked up at the ceiling, closed her eyes and slowly shook her head while taking a deep breath. "I know it's confusing, Sweetheart. Your father believes he's mild-mannered Clark Kent, freelance reporter with ties to the Daily Planet. And he also believes that I'm his biological daughter, Lara." She paused. "And that's why I've been sleeping here for the past twenty-plus years."

Appalled by the revelations, Elle returned to her position on the edge of the bed, eye-to-eye with her mother. "So what does he believe happened to you…his wife?"

"He believes his wife ran off with Superman, leaving him and their older daughter Lara to raise you."

"So he thinks he's a normal man, that you're me and that I'm the illegitimate child of Lois and Superman; is that right?"

"Exactly." Lois looked down and then back into the eyes of her daughter. "At first, it almost sounds comical until you consider how insidious the whole thing is." Her eyes began to well. "Forget all the covering I had to do early on; all the excuses and lies I had to tell. For twenty years he has resented your existence and even though he's good-hearted and has tried to be a good father to you, you are a constant reminder of why the woman he loved has left his life forever." Tears traveled down her cheeks. "He tried not to see you as the byproduct of his wife's infidelity, but in his words, 'he's only human' and carries feelings of resentment – especially when you're around." She paused. "It's why you're not around very often."

"So Superman...?"

"Left with his wife twenty-one years ago. He won't say much in front of you but he hates Superman. He accuses Superman of using his alien powers to steal his wife from him." Lois took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It's the reason you won't find any stories about Superman over the last twenty-one years. Superman just disappeared to all but a handful of people; some believe he died and others think he left for another galaxy."

"Mom; before I came here I flew over the city for a while. I even went to Suicide Slums and everything seems so idyllic. Seeing the city like that I just knew the future you told me about had come to pass. How did everything become so serene without Superman?"

Lois smiled sadly. "It started with the things that Pete Ross did during his two terms as President that got the country back on its feet. I like to think that the example your father set for mankind left an impression on a generation of people and it guided them. But it's not this way everywhere in the world; just mainly in this hemisphere." She paused for a moment. "Also, the remnants of the Justice League have been very active," she said and then added, "You're a part of the JL now."

"I am?"

Nodding, she continued. "Diana Prince really stepped in to take you under her wing and Kara helped you master your powers." She paused. "Your father doesn't trust Kara but has a huge crush on Diana Prince, by the way."

"My father has a crush on Wonder Woman?"

"Well technically in his mind, _your_ father has a huge crush on Lois Lane-Kent; my father's the one with the crush on Wonder Woman," she said with a humorless chuckle.

Elle sat quietly, running through all the ramifications of her father's dementia and its impact on her mother. "My God, Mom; how did this happen?"

"That's the difficult part to explain," Lois replied. "Settle back; it's a long and confusing story." She shifted position and pulled her legs up and folded them beneath her. "It began about a month after you left us in June of 2021."

Lois began an incredible story that commenced with the state visit of Madam Yu of Taiwan; the event that Elle had previously learned resulted in the assassination of Pete Ross and the return to power of Lex Luthor. "Your father thwarted the assassination attempt. Luthor was under such close scrutiny after the video landed in the hands of the Justice Department that he was later caught ordering the assassination. He ended up being arrested and sent to prison."

"Well, that was good; right?"

"Of course it was good, Elle, but making sure that Pete was safe may have been the cause of what happened to your father."

She continued to tell of an establishment that the Justice League had been watching for some time. "It was a fight club in Nevada, near Las Vegas. The team thought it was a recruiting center for an Apokoliptian named Granny Goodness. She was or is the leader of a band of female warriors from Apokolips called Furies that serve as Darkseid's elite personal guards."

Elle nodded. "Father had told me a little about Darkseid several months before he left. He told me to be alert for him because he is devious and possibly the most dangerous threat to Earth that he ever faced."

"Did he mention Granny Goodness or the Furies?" She shook her head. "DeSaad?"

"No."

"I guess it doesn't matter. If they resurface, J'onn will know and can bring you up to speed about them." Lois took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing. She then told her daughter of the collaboration between Intergang and Darkseid's minions and how the fight club was actually a recruiting center for human Furies. "Darkseid still has designs on mankind; even after your father kicked his ass the first time he showed up."

"That's when he first appeared to people as Superman; right?"

Lois smiled and nodded but her smile faded quickly. "In the morning hours on the day Madam Yu was making her visit to the White House, the Justice League raided the fight club in Las Vegas. They thought that Darkseid's second-in-command; DeSaad, was arriving to pass judgment on Granny's latest recruits. The team naturally wanted to get rid of them. DeSaad did arrive but he wasn't the only VIP who showed up that night. And shortly after DeSaad arrived, Diana gave the signal and the team began the operation."

Elle repositioned herself on the bed, lying on her side with her head propped up by her hand. She curled her knees up a bit and listened intently.

Covering only the important details, Lois told Elle that the raid seemed to be progressing fine as they quickly located Granny, DeSaad and Mannheim. DeSaad did not put up much of a fight but Granny did. "She nearly killed Shayera before J'onn came to her rescue. Bruce cornered Mannheim and they went toe-to-toe for a while but Mannheim was no match for Batman." Mannheim did, however, have an ace left up his sleeve. Intergang thugs were everywhere and Oliver got bogged down trying to take them all out. Hal Jordan ended up having to bail Oliver out because Mannheim's thugs suddenly produced Apokoliptian weapons." Lois went on to explain that the team had no idea that Mannheim's men possessed the high tech weapons and before long, the team had to pull back and regroup a bit, leaving Diana, Shayera, and Bruce isolated. After regrouping, they quickly pushed forward with another assault to free Diana, Bruce and Shayera.

"Diana had ripped the motherbox from Granny, her device for opening a transport portal to Apokolips. She used her lasso to secure Granny and J'onn fought off her two Furies that had been brought in to fight that night. Hal was taking out the Intergang thugs while Oliver and Shayera were mopping up. But no one could locate Bruce."

"Where was he?"

"Darkseid had surprised Bruce and transported him to another part of the facility where they fought. Darkseid was getting the better of Bruce though."

"What about Father?" Elle asked.

"He had just finished thwarting the assassination attempt and flew out to Nevada. He knocked Mannheim unconscious and then scanned for Bruce while the others finished off the remnants of Intergang." She paused and then began again. "This is where it gets a little weird. Your father spotted Bruce and rushed in to help him. He just reacted without thinking and flew into Darkseid, knocking him backward but causing your father to instantly disappear. It was about then when Hal and J'onn arrived."

Elle sat up. "So where did Father end up?"

"According to J'onn, your father was caught in Darkseid's Omega Sanction, sending him to constantly-changing alternate realities. What J'onn says it's a fate worse than death. Each reality is worse than the one before it and your father was trapped with no way out."

Cocking her head, a frown formed on Elle's brow. "But he's here now or does he think he's in an alternate reality?"

"Well yes and no. The funny thing is, Bruce was the only one prepared that day for Darkseid. He never had a chance to use it earlier because he was surprised by Darkseid but he had a gun with several bullets made of a substance called Radion that would kill Darkseid. When your father flew into Darkseid and knocked him down, Bruce scrambled to his feet and pulled the gun on Darkseid. He was going to kill him just as J'onn and Hal arrived. Darkseid was pretty beat up; first by Bruce and then by your father flying into him. Before Bruce pulled the trigger, J'onn stopped him. He looked into Darkseid's mind and realized that Darkseid had trapped your father in these alternate realities. Darkseid told them that if he died, the Kryptonian would die with him. So in exchange for his life, Darkseid released your father from the Omega Sanction."

"So the Omega Sanction caused Father to lose his memories."

"Not really," Lois replied. "When your father was released, he was alive but weak and disoriented. At that exact moment when everyone's attention shifted to your father, Darkseid transported himself from Earth. But as he disappeared, he kept your father's mind trapped and left him with corrupted memories; the ones he's had for the last twenty-one years." She shifted in a more comfortable position. "The way you saw him tonight is the way he's been ever since that day." Elle began to say something but stopped. "Go ahead; I'm sure you have a lot of questions, Sweetheart."

"Do you know if there's any way to get his mind freed?"

Lois shrugged. "The JL has been working on that steadily ever since that day. Hal called up the Green Lantern Corps to search for Darkseid. When Kara and Diana weren't teaching you, they've been searching for him. J'onn has done more than all of them put together trying to track Darkseid. They've come close several times but just as they are about to corner him, he disappears. Holding your father's mind makes Darkseid a big target but it also makes him virtually unstoppable if he ever reappears. Without you and Kara here, he'd probably have come back by now."

Clenching her teeth, Elle posed another question. "What if I returned to the past right now, Mom? I could warn Father and the team about Darkseid; then they'd be prepared to face him."

Lois lay back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. "I've been playing with that scenario in my head ever since that day, Elle. I knew you'd be returning some day and that seems to be the simple answer. But I'm worried by that too."

"Why?"

"Because I'm here now; I'm not dead. Your father and I raised you and you're a wonderful daughter; you make me proud every day. You are loved, Elle and even though your father doesn't realize you're his daughter right now, he treats you well and does everything he can for you."

"But what about you? I can't imagine being married to a man I love for twenty years but not being able to love him…you know, the way a wife should love their husband. Not being able to hold him or touch him or him touch me – but yet to be with him every day; it has to be horrible for you."

Tears pooled in Lois' eyes and then ran down the sides of her head and disappeared into her thick locks of hair. She tried to answer but only made a croaking sound before rolling over and burying her face in the pillow, sobbing. Elle moved to her mother quickly, hugging her from behind. "I can fix this…you have to tell me what you think I should do." She stroked her mother's hair. "This can't be the future you expected."

Eventually Lois gained control of her emotions and turned to face her daughter. "That's just it, Elle. I don't know if this is the future I learned about the night you were born or not." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "In that future, I lived for almost 650 years. Twenty years is nothing compared to 650. Maybe your father does regain his mind…maybe soon. If something changes in the past, it will alter this timeline. What if this is the one that I learned about that night? That's why I afraid of sending you back, Elle."

Still kneeling at the side of her mother's bed, Elle realized the full insidiousness of Darkseid's act. She said softly, "I can't believe that this is the future Father told you about; even if it is a short span in your entire lifetime." She wiped a tear from the corner of her own eye. "Father would have told you to expect it; I'm sure of it. Seeing you two together as an adult, I realize how deeply he loved you. You've always been the center of his universe, Mom. If he knew you had to suffer through this even for a year, he would have told you to expect it. I just know he would, Mom."

"But the world is changing, Elle. It's slowly changing into what he told me it would be like."

"But you don't know that for certain though," Elle replied. "Maybe it got better but the improvements won't continue. Maybe it has reached the height of change. You said the rest of the world hasn't changed the way Metropolis has." Lois didn't reply but instead just shrugged her shoulders. It was obvious that she had considered every angle of the matter over the last twenty years. "Maybe I should travel to the future and see."

Lois shook her head. "No Elle; if you do that you won't be able to return and intervene without creating imbalances; ripples from the time you return and forward into the future."

She nodded knowing that her mother was right. They sat quietly for a moment as Elle processed the situation. "We need to talk this through, Mom. There's no way this is that future. Let's get up and have some coffee, okay?"

Rising up, Lois sniffed again and swallowed. "That's a good idea. We'll go over everything and maybe we can find the key event that caused the divergence. This is one time your father won't be able to help us."

Elle rose and helped her mother to her feet. They headed for the door and glancing back at the two twin beds, she remarked. "For a second, I thought I had a sister when I saw those beds."

"Well," Lois muttered as she headed to the kitchen in the dark, "that would have been nice but you know better than that. No use dredging that up too."

"What do you mean?" Elle asked as she followed her mother into the kitchen as Lois found the lights. "When I was growing up, I always wondered why I didn't have a brother or sister."

Lois had retrieved the coffee carafe and was heading to the sink but Elle's question stopped her dead in her tracks. She stared at her daughter for a moment. "You don't know? Are you kidding me?"

Surprised by her mother's reaction to the benign question, Elle was speechless for a moment and struggled to answer. "Uh…well, no. Was it because it was dangerous for you…I mean, physically…because Father's Kryptonian? I don't mean to pry, Mom…if you don't want to talk about it." She broke eye contact and went to the cabinet to retrieve the coffee. "I always suspected that maybe after me, something happened to you and that getting pregnant wasn't possible."

Lois frowned as a thought crossed her mind. "And you never asked your father…even after I was gone?"

She nodded. "I asked him once after you died. He was tucking me in bed," and she chuckled. "I was twelve years old; too old to be tucked in. Father had become pretty withdrawn emotionally by then and he hardly ever mentioned you because it seemed to make him worse. But I knew that he was miserable that night and tucking me in bed was something he just needed to do. That night we talked a bit about you and I asked him why you never had more children. He told me that he didn't know for sure but believed that I was proof that miracles were real. He said that everyone just knew that you two could never have a child but you did. He said that you were both just grateful you had me and never expected another miracle to happen."

She stood at the sink envisioning the tenderness of that moment between her daughter and husband. A lump formed in her throat thinking about it and the difficulties Elle and Clark experienced. But then something began gnawing at her. Something that Elle had said years ago that had seemed out of place or odd. It was something minor but not minor; something said in passing and Lois strained to remember.

"Anyway," Elle continued, "that was the last and only time I asked him. There really was no reason to ask again."

Lois filled the carafe and then poured it in the coffee maker, flipped the switch and coffee began brewing. She turned back to face her daughter. "Elle, the reason we never had more children was because of a decision I made." She paused and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the kitchen. "Two weeks after you were born, Jor-El convinced me that for the sake of mankind I shouldn't have more children. He said that the influence of human traits would be greater in subsequent children and that the human race had not evolved sufficiently to risk having super-powered beings on Earth that lacked control over their emotions. He said that I should allow him to sterilize me or I to cease physical relations with your father. Some choice, huh?"

"Jor-El said that?" Elle stared blankly at Lois. "Where was Father when that happened?"

She smiled sadly. "In the Fortress bedroom sleeping next to you."

"I don't think Father ever knew that," she muttered, still staring blankly.

"He did, Elle. Not while it was happening but later on. I told him." She stared into the sad eyes of her child and then turned, opened the cupboard and took out two coffee mugs.

"He couldn't have known," Elle mumbled. "If he knew, he…" she trailed off.

Lois turned back to face her daughter. She tried to smile reassuringly but knew that it was more a grimace than a smile. "Sweetheart, he just probably didn't know how to tell you."

"But I would have known, Mom," she pleaded. "I would've been able to read him; I would have heard it in his voice and seen it in his face that night." She moved close and stared intently into her mother's eyes. "I would have known, Mom."

"Sweetheart," she began. "You father is a good man…a great man. But he spent most of his younger years deceiving people about what he was. He deceived me for years."

"But that was before you really tried to see; wasn't it Mom? When you began to really love him, didn't you know when he wasn't telling you the truth?" Lois didn't respond. "You even told me so. You told me that he would make up the stupidest excuses for things he did that you knew weren't true. You knew when he was lying and when he was being truthful; so did I."

Reaching out and stroking the side of her face, Lois shook her head. "Elle; I told him and that's not something one forgets." She turned back to the coffee pot and began pouring two cups of coffee. "I had always felt guilty about keeping it from him but I figured I could do it. Then you arrived and I didn't tell him about you at first because you asked me not to say anything to him. But I hated keeping these things like that from him and all this guilt kept building up until one day after you had left I told him everything. I told him about you returning from the future," she turned back to face her daughter and handed her a cup, "and about what happened that day at the Fortress. So you see, Honey; your father knew." She sipped at her coffee. "Let's go sit down and figure out what else has to change, okay?"

Lois led Elle to the couch and they sat, placing their cups on the coffee table. "I've wondered about this for twenty years, Elle. I don't know where to begin looking. Is it after Pete's saved or before? There wasn't much time between your father saving Pete and then confronting Darkseid." They sat quietly. The din of the city beyond the terrace had faded and silence reigned. "This is going to be tough; I don't know where to start. I've thought about this for nearly twenty-one years and…"

"Wait!" Elle interrupted excitedly. "You said after I left you told him about what happened at the Fortress." Lois nodded. "Mom, that's what happened in this timeline. In my timeline I would had never come to visit you because I wouldn't have known about the future until I lived it." She frowned. "Is it possible that in my timeline that you never told Father about what happened with Jor-El?"

"Is it possible?" she replied incredulously. "Let me see: your father thinks that his wife left with Superman, that I'm his daughter, that he's just a normal human dork, and you're asking me if it's possible I kept a secret from him? Of all those possibilities, I think me keeping a secret from him is the most possible."

Still excited, she asked, "So what happened after you told him?"

"He got angry with Jor-El and buried the Fortress under snow…oh my God! That's it!" Lois cried, slapping her hand on the couch. "That's what I was trying to remember just a few minutes ago. You told me a long time ago that you visited the Fortress only once before and it was before I died. I remember asking if your Father had to dig the Fortress out first before we could get in but you said it wasn't covered in snow at all; that we just flew in there! I knew that something was odd about that."

"You're right! He didn't have to clear out any snow but what does that all mean?" Elle asked.

"Don't you see?" Lois asked. "Whatever the divergence point in the timeline is; it has nothing to do with that video file because I never told your father about that day in the Fortress before I died in your timeline but I did in this one. Because of that, the two timelines have to converge somewhere before you showed up at the park…so sometime before your second birthday! Something significant occurred before then that changed the future." She took Elle's hands in her own. "All these years I've wondered where to start looking for the point where the two timelines converge. This is fantastic because now we only have two years to backtrack through. Of course, it's two years that happened over twenty-one years ago."

"I've got an idea, Mom," Elle exclaimed. "I went to the Planet before I came here and saw all those articles on display. Why don't we go there and look through archives for some significant event that could have triggered the divergence; wouldn't that make it easier? Father said that it had to be something significant."

"Yes! Great idea; now you're thinking like me," Lois replied, smirking as she jumped to her feet. "Let me go put on some different clothes. We have to figure it out tonight, Honey. This has to be it! Once we figure out the event that caused the divergence, you can go back and warn your father."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

May 25, 2042

Metropolis

The clock hanging over the office door showed 10:11 PM and the two women sat drinking coffee at an eight-foot conference table in Lois' office at the Planet. Elle had flown them from the apartment to the Daily Planet. With glasses on and her hair pulled back, Elle had followed Lois into the lobby and boarded the elevator that took them to the top floor.

Large GUI screens were embedded in the glass top that sat inside the rich walnut conference table that sat in her office. At this table, Lois would meet with the Department heads and review the next day's stories, enabling her to reset the order in which stories were to appear simply by touch. Aside from the high tech conference table, little else had changed in the way the Planet looked. Even Lois had changed little in the Editor-in-Chief's office preferring to maintain the rich, old school appearance of the room.

The same could not be said for the atmosphere at the Daily Planet: it was eerily quiet. It had been quite some time since Lois had been in her office this late in the evening and the Daily Planet was like a tomb. It was not at all the way it had been back in the days of Superman, Jimmy, and Perry. Even at this hour in those days, things would be hopping at the paper.

Lois began displaying the front page of the Daily Planet beginning with the day that Elle appeared in the park; just after her second birthday in April of 2021. From the front page she moved backward through first ten pages of Section A and then the first ten pages of Section B. Elle followed along sitting in the seat to her right.

In the year 2028 the Daily Planet would end publishing its paper in hard copy print and convert to an all digital format. The digital Daily Planet would be the first major newspaper that made the complete conversion. Many papers had a reduced digital edition of their newspapers but the Planet had become fully digital, sending their newspaper to subscribers' personal enrichment devices, reducing the costs of operating a newspaper and saving all but those who once oversaw the automated printing presses. The all-digital Daily Planet was Perry White's final crowning achievement before he retired and handing the reins of the newspaper over to Lois.

Next to her lay a lined legal pad and pen. She decided that she would take notes in order to connect whatever dots might exist between the prospective event and other later events that led to catastrophic results. As she digitally flipped through the first archived images of the old formatted newspaper, Lois grew a bit nostalgic. The word, "Superman" was particularly hard for her to see as it evoked faded memories of a better time. She had to clear her throat before she said, "Section A is the world and national news, B is the local news, C is sports and D is finance. I think what we're looking for could be in any of those sections…except for the Sports section. I don't think the outcome of the World Series or Super Bowl would have an impact on the future," she said with a grin.

"And it has to be a significant event," Elle reminded. "Father said that it wasn't as simple as you turning right when you should have turned left."

"Right! And it has to somehow link back to Lex and his plan, I would think." She looked up. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Nodding without looking up, Elle answered, "I think so." Elle read text as Lois looked at article headers and tried to consider what link they may have to Lex and his plan.

After twenty minutes of scanning the pages, Lois sat upright. "This is going to take longer than I imagined." They had gone through only a week of Daily Planet papers. "At this rate, we'll be here for a week."

"We could use another set of eyes," Elle replied. "Someone who can speed read and comprehends complex things." She looked up at her mother. "Do you think someone from the JL would be available?"

She squint her eyes and looked at the clock above the door. 10:34 PM. Lois smiled and with an arched eyebrow, "I've got a better idea," she said. Sweeping away the newspaper image in front of her, she tapped the glass top and keyed in a contact name. "I hope that it's not too late for…" She halted her conversation when her cousin's face appeared on the GUI. "Hey Cuz," she said.

"Uh-oh. It must be a problem," Chloe replied, smirking. "What's the matter?"

"I need your help in a big way. Can you break free right now?"

"Sure," she replied. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you when you get here."

"Okay but it's going to take me about forty-five minutes to get there."

"No it won't," Lois replied, "Can you be ready in five?"

"Sure…I take it you're at work pulling an all-nighter," she said with a cocked head. "I'll let Emil know he's 'on duty' tonight." For the last sixteen years, the two had been happily married after Chloe had given birth to their highly-precocious daughter; now 18-years old but still quite capable of getting herself into trouble faster than a speeding bullet.

"Thanks Chlo. I'll see you in a few," Lois said and tapped the glass, clearing the screen. She looked at Elle. "Do you know where Chloe lives?"

Elle made a face. "I used to know," she said. "Is she still at the place that Oliver Queen bought her?"

"That's the place!" Elle rose and headed for the door. "Take it easy on her though," Lois warned. "It's been a quite a few years since she's been blurred or flown and unlike your Mom, she has aged normally."

"That was exhilarating!" Chloe proclaimed as she entered the room looking slightly wind-blown but no worse for the wear. "I can't remember the last time I took Kent Airways."

"Well, it has to have been over twenty years ago; that's for sure," Lois said.

"So," she began, "dabbling in time travel again?" she asked with a half-smile.

"Something like that. Here's what's going on." For the next thirty minutes, Lois explained the entire scenario to Chloe who sat nonplussed at the revelations her cousin made about timelines, divergence points and alternate futures. Elle occasionally chimed in whenever her mother's details of alternate futures and pasts went askew or were vague. When finished, Chloe sat silently, nodding slightly and piecing the saga together.

"None of this seems to surprise you," Elle said. She smiled curiously, "You don't find this all a bit strange, do you?"

Chloe chuckled. "Lara, if you knew all that I've lived through with your Mom and Dad, you wouldn't bother asking that. I was surprised thirty-three years ago when your Mom ended up on an elevated train wreck in Metropolis after being missing for two weeks and learning she had spent a couple days a year into the future. After experiencing that, nothing is surprising." She looked at Lois. "So you want me to help skim the news and find an event you think will change the course of history; is that it?"

Nodding, Lois added, "It will have to tie into Lex Luthor and his plan to become President for life. The problem is that it will probably be so vague an event that it won't be apparent if you don't follow all the possible leads."

Frowning, Chloe said, "Log me in to your archive access, Lo. I'll make this easy for all of us." Lois did and her younger cousin who now looked like an older Aunt began furiously tapping on the glass top in front of her. "It's pretty simple to create a linking routine based on certain constants and variables and their known or predicted outcomes using a simple algorithm."

"Of course," Lois declared sarcastically. "Why didn't I think of that in the first place?" She rolled her eyes and looked at Elle who was unsuccessfully trying to suppress a smile.

After about fifteen minutes of tapping and muttering, Chloe raised her head. "There," she said, "I think it's ready to run."

"Hit it!" Lois said. The GUI display flickered a couple times and began with an initial display. "What's with the red number at the top? Tell me that's not the number of events we have to review."

"No. It's the probability percentage that the event produced an outcome that was favorable to Lex achieving his plan of reshaping the Supreme Court makeup that would allow him to repeal the 22nd Amendment. The higher the number, the more likely the outcome was a component of Lex's plan. The events will be ordered from the highest percent to the lowest."

The highest number was logically attributed to the murder of Justice Hough; that number being 100. The second event that was displayed was the foiled assassination attempt on Pete Ross and the First Lady of Taiwan, Madam Yu; also assigned a 100. From there, the red number at the top of the screen began to drop. As the number fell below 50, a yellow page icon appeared. "What's that?" Elle asked.

"It's the link sequence," Chloe replied. "Tap it." Elle tapped the yellow icon and a chart was displayed with circles and lines connecting to know outcomes and predicted outcomes had the chain of events not been interrupted. "Each circle represents a corresponding outcome that furthered a favorable path to Lex achieving his goal. Tap any of the circles and it will tell you what that predicted outcome was or would have been."

"Wow!" Lois cried.

"Yes," her younger cousin replied. "But it's just the start. Now comes the more difficult part: trying to choose which event caused the divergence of timelines." She paused and looked at the women. "There are twenty-six events that have more than a ten-percent probability of being tied to Lex's plan. We have to go through each one of them…closely."

"We'll need more coffee," Lois offered and rose. "I trust everyone else will want a cup?"

"Or a quart!" Chloe replied. She frowned as Lois moved to the large coffee machine that was situated in the far corner of the office. "Remind me again why we're starting with the date we did? How did you choose that day as a starting point?"

"That's the first date I arrived in the past to talk to Mom," Elle replied. "I was apparently the cause of Mom telling Father about what happened to her in the Fortress."

Chloe's head jerked and she swiveled around in her chair to face Lois. "What happened to you in the Fortress?"

Lois kept her back turned and head down, focusing on preparing each a mug of coffee. "Oh, just a…private audience I had with Jor-El that I always regretted," she said nonchalantly. "Do you want cream, Chlo?" Chloe declined.

Frowning, her younger cousin pressed as Lois returned to the table and handed her a mug. "Thanks. Something tells me that there was more to it than just a private audience. What did you talk about with Jor-El?" She glanced at Elle who now realized that her mother had never told her cousin about the events in the Fortress that day. She felt embarrassed and took the mug of steaming coffee from her mother and sipped it, avoiding making eye contact with Chloe.

"Well," Lois began. "It was a long time ago," she began and sat down in her chair. "But after Lara was born, Clark took us to the Fortress so that Jor-El could analyze her physical makeup. We thought it would be useful to know what percentage of her biology was Kryptonian so that we'd have a better understanding of what to expect as she grew up." Chloe nodded. "And while we were there, Jor-El said he wanted to speak to me privately so Clark took Lara into the bedroom and they both fell asleep on the bed. Jor-El told me that because my physiology was changing from of the influence of Clark's DNA, any additional children would have a greater percent of human characteristics. He convinced me that they would pose a significant danger to humanity since humans had not evolved enough emotionally to handle having super powers. So he gave me a choice to either quit having physical relations with Clark or submit to a sterilization procedure." She sipped her coffee.

"And you agreed to that?" She nodded. "I can't believe you would let anyone talk you into that," she exclaimed incredulously. "Especially Jor-El!"

"Chloe," she began, "you have to understand that we felt so blessed that we even had Lara and Jor-El was so convincing; he made it sound like the future of mankind hung in the balance. I admit, it wasn't my finest hour but I knew what the future held for all of us and I wasn't going to allow anything to take that away from us."

"But you did!" Chloe cried. She stared at Lois and then looked at Elle. "Don't you see? That was the significant event that changed the course of history!"

Lois made a face. "How could us having more children change the course of history when Lex was at the center of everything that happened? Come on, Chloe; that doesn't make sense. In the scope of mankind, it's hardly significant."

"What happened after that?"

"Nothing," she replied. "We moved on with our lives up until the moment that Clark ran into Darkseid." She paused and Chloe frowned, trying to connect dots. "And I don't even know for sure that the future I learned about the night I had Lara has actually changed. Maybe Clark regains his memories and we continue on from there and things turn out just the way he said they would."

"Mom was killed when I was eight, Chloe," Elle offered. "In my past, Mom was killed after China had launched a nuclear counterstrike against the US in retaliation for the one that Lex Luthor had launched against it. But now Mom's alive because that attack never happened and Lex was caught ordering the murder of Justice Hough before he could arrange things to take that step." She looked at her mother. "I know there is a divergence in the timeline between the moment I showed up and the time Mom was visited in the hospital on the night of my birth. But I'm with Mom; I'm not sure how her having more children would disrupt Lex's plan to reshape the Supreme Court and overturn Constitutional limits on Presidential terms."

She shook her head furiously. "It doesn't matter that you don't know how it impacts," she said strenuously. "The fact that your Mom made that decision changed the future for her and your father. That change somehow affected something that otherwise would have disrupted Lex's plan." Chloe tapped the glass table top in front of her and images of the Daily Planet's front page appeared and she began rapidly sweeping through page after page. "All of these things that are linked to Lex's plan…one of them is disrupted in some major way because of something your mother or father did or didn't do. Lex's plot never came to fruition because of something linked to your parents having more children, Elle. One of these events is altered somehow or there could be hundreds of others with a lower probability that are affected. There might even be some that are not in this group because they should or shouldn't have happened in the first place."

In a calm low voice, Lois said, "But Chloe; when Clark visited me the night Lara was born he never mentioned more children. In fact, he only talked about Lara and how the two of them worked together in the future. I think he would have mentioned it if we had more children. He would have said, "Our kids" or something like that; don't you think?"

She made a face. "He didn't even tell you what gender Lara would be and he knew that was going to happen within a couple hours. Do you really think he would have told you that you were going to have more children?" Lois shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sure he told you what you needed to hear right then and there and nothing more."

"Chloe; how sure are you that Mom's decision that day is the divergence point?" Elle inquired. "That happened about two weeks after I was born. If that's not the divergence point, I can't influence things again because there is no earlier point I can go to; there won't be a window of opportunity left unless I directly change it." She paused. "If that happens, there could be significant repercussions."

"Can't you go back and just warn your father about what will happen if he takes your mom to the Fortress? It seems that her being left alone with Jor-El that day was the cause of all the problems."

Elle sighed. "That's assuming I can pinpoint the right time to arrive in the past to intervene and that I'll be able to convince them not to go or not to let Jor-El sterilize Mom."

"I don't think the last part would be hard to do," Lois chimed in. "But whether or not you can make it back at the right time is the big question."

"And each time I go back, there's always the risk that I'll interact with someone and accidentally influence something that will cause other events to be affected," Elle added. "Even if I did hit it at the right moment, what if telling Father about Jor-El causes him to do something to the Fortress that impacts him or all of us later on? If it changes him and the relationship he had with Jor-El at that time, it could set other events in motion that never would have occurred if I hadn't intervened."

"You mean like Jor-El warning your father about Darkseid?" Chloe groaned softly. "I see what you mean."

They all sat silently for a few moments and sipped their coffee. Lois looked at the clock and it was now 1:18 AM. Finally she spoke. "Chloe; I think we've found what we were looking for. You should probably let Elle take you back home now while we figure out what to do."

Hugs were exchanged and before she left with Elle, Chloe turned to her older cousin. "I never understood why you and Clark never produced another child. I always figured that Lara's birth somehow prevented you from immediately having more children. Then, when Clark went into 'altered states' mode, I knew you wouldn't have the opportunity once you told me about your sleeping arrangements." She stared sadly at Lois. "I understand why you made the decision, Lo. Don't beat yourself up about it. Whether it was the right decision or the divergence point, you did what you thought was right at the time and I admire the sacrifice you made."

"Thanks, Chlo," she replied. "A lot of good it does now, right?"

Smiling she answered, "Only time will tell, Lois." Looking at Elle she added, "Keep the faith."

After depositing Chloe at home and bidding her farewell, Elle flew back to the Planet but slowly. She looked at the sparkling, serene city below; a city far different than she had ever witnessed before. It was a city so improved that she feared any further change would reset it back to the versions of Metropolis that she had previously known or glimpsed in her time travels. The magnitude of her choices began weighing on her. She knew that orchestrating another change in the past could have unexpected effects on her family but also have a tumultuous impact on the rest of the world. Elle also realized that she was running out of options. Going back so far in the past with only a two-week period between her birth and her mother's decision was an extremely narrow window of time to meet up with and change her parents' actions. Two weeks was a sliver of time and any change that resulted in disastrous outcomes for her family or mankind would make the window of opportunity to reverse it almost infinitesimal.

She was convinced that her mother's decision was indeed the divergence point in timelines given all the evidence at hand. In her mind, Elle ran through the few options available to her and with whom she risked interaction. Should she seek to convince her mother, her father, or someone else who could intervene without creating a dangerous ripple in time?

Landing on the roof of the Daily Planet, she stared out at the city and then looked up at the moonless sky above. Settling on a plan of action, she resolutely walked through the roof access door and down the stairs. "I'll take you home now, Mom," Elle said as she entered Lois' office.

"Not just yet. We have to talk first." The tone she used implied that the elder Lane-Kent had been weighing options as well. Elle walked over and joined her mother at the table where she sat viewing old digital images of the Daily Planet during its heyday. "What I wouldn't give to be back in these days, Elle. It was fast-paced and furious at times but it was the pinnacle of my existence; personally as well as professionally. Things were so different then, Honey. Even as great as Metropolis has evolved since these times, I would still prefer this version over what we have now." Her eyes grew watery. "I had you, I had a full-throated career…I had Superman by my side." She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "But sometimes you have to let the chips fall where they land, Honey. I made a bad decision that affected lives beyond just mine and as a result, our family has paid the price." She looked into the deep blue eyes of her daughter. "Our family has always been about sacrificing personal comforts and needs to ensure a better world. When I grew up, my family sacrificed having a father for what we all knew was the greater good. It didn't make it easy but we knew it was necessary." She paused, searching Elle's eyes. "The present we live in now isn't perfect, Elle, but mankind is evolving the way your father told me it would so many years ago. Even though it's not exactly the way I hoped it would unfold, it seems that fate has stepped in and allowed you to step in to your father's shoes and make a difference in the world."

"What are you saying Mom?"

Looking back at the images of Daily Planet front pages, Lois replied, "I think you've done enough, Sweetheart. Maybe it isn't perfect but civilization seems to be on track. Your continued influence in this time can push it ahead and we can still enjoy making a world where mankind is respectful of differences and unified in the belief that we are all in this together." She paused and looked up from the images before her. "I'm saying that you should take off the ring and live in this timeline; make the best of it and we can always hope that your father recovers his memories at some point."

Elle reached out and put her hand on her mother's forearm. "But what about you? I know you have to be lonely, Mom. I know that every day you see Father and hug him before you leave for work that your heart aches inside for more. I know that because I saw how amazing you two used to be. I know how deeply you loved one another on every level and most of those levels have been taken away from you and Father." She began to feel her eyes pooling. "I can't let you live like this for another 600 years and I know Father might recover some day but I also know there's a chance he won't. Leaving it like this could mean sentencing you to 600 years of heart ache and loneliness. I can't let that happen when I have the power to change it."

"Changing it will change you, Elle."

"Maybe for the better, Mom. Maybe it will give me a childhood in which I had parents who were in love with one another and that is the difference between civilization seeming to be on track and definitely being on the right track." She twisted the ring on her finger. "If I took this off now, all the memories of this lifetime will flood in and overtake those I have now. I won't know there's a difference and only you will know what the future might have held if I had just tried again." She looked down at the images her mother had been looking at. "Changing it will make this time in your life more meaningful and maybe make the years after it more fulfilling, Mom. I have to try one more time."

"Even if it's at your own peril, Sweetheart? If you make a change and something happens to you, you won't get another chance; your window of opportunity will be shut. I suppose you've considered that, right?"

"Yes," she replied. "I know that there's a distinct chance of that, Mom. But as you said, our family has always been about sacrifice and if I must make one for my family's future and the future of mankind, then it's a risk worth taking and a small price to pay."

Lois smiled sadly, looking at her strikingly beautiful daughter and nodded slightly. "And that's exactly the reason why I made the choice I did so many years ago in the Fortress." She lunged over and hugged her daughter, whispering through her tears. "Your father and grandfather would be so proud of you."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Washington, DC

April 26, 2019

It was just past 6 AM when Pete entered the Oval Office to find President Lex Luthor pouring over pages that lay on The Resolute Desk behind which he sat. "Good morning, Mr. President," Pete said officially.

Lex looked up and motioned for him to close the door behind him. Pete complied before Lex opened his mouth. "These overnight polls show the country is growing increasingly hostile toward China. I believe within a year, we can drum up enough public support to do something that will pressure China into dealing with our debt."

"That's good, Lex. That's exactly what you were hoping for, isn't it?"

He nodded. "That's one half of the problem."

Pete frowned. "What's the other half? I thought turning the public against China would give you the political leverage you were looking for. Are you saying there's more?"

"Political leverage is something I already have, Pete. The same polls show a growing percentage expects me to act to address China's demands for interest repayment." He paused and stacked the papers in a neat pile. "The other half of the problem is Superman," he said bluntly. "I just read that he's fathered a child with our favorite reporter."

"You mean Lois Lane?"

"Lois Lane-Kent, Pete," Lex said pointedly. "You know Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same."

Pete sat on the couch in the Oval Office. It had been over a year since he last contacted Clark and that was simply to congratulate him on marrying Lois. After being selected as Lex's running mate and winning the election, their contact had diminished considerably; something that Pete felt was unfair to him. He felt that he had done nothing to warrant what he viewed as Clark's snub of their relationship but still felt a sense of loyalty to his oldest friend. "Lex, we've been through this before. I'm Clark Kent's oldest friend and I would know if he was an alien; I would tell you."

"Would you?"

"Of course I would, Lex. I've known Clark for more than twenty years and I can tell you he's no super-powered being from another planet." He paused and then added. "I've seen Clark hurt. I've seen Clark nearly killed by a bullet. For God's sake, he was tied up and left overnight in a corn field his freshman year by some jocks wanting to make fun of him. What part of that sounds like Superman?"

"A part that wants to throw everyone off his trail," Lex replied coolly.

"We've seen Superman being interviewed live on TV while Clark is in the press gallery. How do you account for that?" Pete wasn't sure how Clark had pulled that off but he attributed it to his amazing powers or his amazing friends.

"I can't," he replied directly. "I was hoping you could shed some light on it."

Pete squirmed under Lex's intense stare. "I can. Clark Kent and Superman are not the same beings. They do look similar but they're not the same, Lex. Come on; I told you this when you were vetting me for Vice President. If you think I'm lying to you, why did you select me to run with you?"

He stared at his Vice President. "Because you said you could deliver a couple of swing states for me; you know very well why I chose you."

"And I wasn't lying then and I'm not lying now, Lex. I don't know what else I can say to make you believe me."

Lex smiled coolly. "Maybe nothing, Pete; but there is something you can do."

"Name it!"

"Have you or your wife visited the Kents since they've had their child?"

Pete shrugged and shook his head. "Actually, I haven't visited the Kents in a long time," he said. "And they haven't visited us either," he added.

"Then I suggest you and Lana visit the Kents; take them a baby gift. And while you're there, maybe something will happen that will require the presence of Superman." Lex stared at Pete. "Then we'll see how long your old friend hangs around."

"Okay," Pete replied. "We'll make arrangements to head there this weekend."

Looking at his watch, Lex replied, "Air Force Two is in the process of finishing its flight preparations right now. You two can go immediately."

Pete swallowed. He wasn't sure exactly what Lex would do to reveal Superman but he was uncomfortable with the plan. He decided to let Clark know ahead of time. "It will take Lana some time to get ready, Lex."

"Of course. I'm sure she'll be ready in 90 minutes when the flight leaves, right?" Before Pete could reply, Lex continued. "Oh, and since there was no time to do an advance, I'll send a couple of my Secret Service detail with you." He reached over to the intercom and pressed a key. "Send Agents Wise and Taylor in to see me." He sat back and a few disquieting moments later, the two agents appeared. "I want you to accompany the Vice President and his wife to Metropolis. The event will go like this: no press, no contact by anyone." He stared at Pete. "This is a personal visit on behalf of the President but I want absolute secrecy because we've had no time to do an advance and I don't want the Vice President or Ms. Ross endangered. They may stop upon arriving in Metropolis to pick up a gift but otherwise, they are to make contact with their hosts only when they reach Metropolis. I'll have my social secretary contact Mr. and Mrs Kent and arrange for a hotel room to meet the Vice President and Mrs. Ross. I will notify you where it is once you arrive on the ground. This is important: I want you to stay in direct contact with both Vice President and Mrs. Ross at all times and have his detail provide perimeter security. Is that clear?"

The two agents acknowledged the directives. Lex looked at Pete. "Give my best to the happy couple," he added. "Take Vice President Ross back to his quarters to pick up Mrs. Ross. His detail should be sent to Air Force Two to secure it ahead of their arrival."

Pete nodded resolutely, trying to conceal his concern. He left in the company of the two agents and once he was gone, Lex pulled a private phone from his desk and called a number. "Mr. Myles; this is President Lex Luthor. You notified me last week that you had knowledge of a vial of blood that Dr. Emil Hamilton protected in his special clinic. You mentioned that he has taken extraordinary measures to protect that sample, did you not?" Myles acknowledged those measures and the countermeasures to defeat Emil's security system. "Thank you, Mr. Myles. You're a true patriot. You'll hear from me or the Department of Homeland Protection within the next two weeks. Thank you again for your service, Mr. Myles."

Lex disconnected from the call and dialed a second number. "Landvatter; execute the operation I discussed with you last night. Do not begin until 8:30 AM Metropolis time. You remember what I'm looking for and how to bypass the security measures, correct?" The man on the other end of the phone repeated what he had been told the night before. "That's right. As soon as your men secure it, I want it analyzed and the results sent directly to me. Is that clear?" Landvatter acknowledged the order. "I will be waiting for your call, Mr. Landvatter. I suggest that you not make me wait long."

Lex disconnected the call, leaned back in his chair and smiled. By the end of the day, he would have all the evidence he needed to prove Lois Lane gave birth to an offspring with alien DNA. In doing so, he would neutralize Clark Kent, his annoying wife and lift the shroud of secrecy that surrounded Superman and his daily existence. He leaned forward and tapped the intercom key. His secretary answered. "Miss Wyatt; please find the number for Mr. and Mrs. Clark Kent of Metropolis. At 8:30 AM, I want you to contact each of them and ask them to meet the Vice President and Mrs. Ross at the Presidential Suite of the Metropolis Plaza at 8:30 their time. Thank you."

Metropolis

April 26, 2019

Lois had told Elle that the three of them had visited the Fortress shortly after she was born so that Jor-El could analyze her DNA. She wasn't positive of the date but was certain that they had visited the Fortress before she was three weeks old. Lois knew the visit occurred on a Friday night since Saturdays were reserved for grocery shopping and cleaning while Sundays were usually spent at the Kent farm in Smallville when Clark wasn't otherwise occupied. After consulting a calendar, Lois settled on the April 26th as the date.

Elle had tried twice to return within the time frame between her birth and the day her mother was sterilized. Twice she had failed to make that window of time. On the third try, she arrived in the early morning hours of the day they would go to the Fortress. She chose to remain at that point in time so that her window of opportunity was only reduced by one day should she have to return and try again.

It was just past 5:30 in the morning and Elle decided against going straight to the apartment. She believed that her abrupt appearance at that time of the day would not only be alarming to her mother and father but also raises suspicions as to her motives. Her plan was to speak with her mother, informing her of the date with Jor-El and the outcome of her decision, and convince her mother to deny Jor-El's demand that she allow him to sterilize her.

She found a diner-style café open and settled in there to await a reasonable hour to approach her mother. She ordered breakfast and coffee. Across the street sat the Daily Planet Building.

At five-forty in the morning, the café was buzzing with members of the overnight shift of the Daily Planet who had finished printing the day's paper and had gravitated to the café for coffee or a well-deserved meal. Some ate at the small booths nearby but most came in, had their orders placed in Styrofoam containers and left.

Elle sat in the far corner of the small café, avoiding contact with others. She feared any contact could alter events in a way that might jeopardize the future she was trying to preserve. With her hair pulled back and reading glasses on, she buried her face in the day's paper. She smiled as she read two articles written by her father. She wondered why her mother had no articles in the paper and then realized that her mother had been on maternity leave for nearly three weeks. On the third page of Section A, she found a story out of Canada in which Superman had saved a small town from exposure to toxic gasses from a nearby overturned train carrying chemicals to a manufacturing plant. Elle envisioned her father at work and smiled.

By 6:15, Elle heard the cashier say, "Good morning, Jimmy!" She looked over the top of her paper to see Jimmy Olsen standing at the cash register. _He was cute_, she thought. His unassuming and slightly befuddled mannerisms were endearing and watching him for those few moments she could now understand why her mother was so protective of him.

"Good morning, Doris," he replied. "A large coffee with cream and sugar and a raspberry Danish, please."

"Raspberry Danish? Are you still being the gopher for Perry White?" Doris asked.

Jimmy looked sheepish and nodded. "I have a shot at getting a full time position as a staff photographer, Doris. Mr. White was going to make a decision this week and I don't want to give him any reason to change his mind."

Doris frowned. "Wasn't that the same thing he told you three weeks ago?"

He shuffled his feet a bit and pulled a wadded ten dollar bill out of his jacket pocket. "Well," he began, trying to smooth the bill out before handing it to her, "I had a bit of a goof up a few weeks ago," he admitted. "It's taken me this long to get back in the Chief's good graces."

"What happened, Jimmy?" she asked as she poured the cream into a steaming cup of coffee.

"Miss Lane went into labor in the office and the Chief got mad at me for not calling 9-1-1 right away. I tried to tell him that she told me to call her doctor instead but he didn't want to hear that. After Mr. Kent arrived and took Miss Lane to her doctor, the Chief called me in his office and chewed me out. He was really mad."

Doris put the lid on the coffee and bagged the Danish. She chuckled and handed the change to Jimmy. "He's one tough nut to crack," she commented.

"He sure is. But Miss Lane is like a daughter to him so I guess he was really worried about her." Jimmy paused and then admitted, "I was too."

"Well it all turned out okay, didn't it?" she asked as she handed him the bag.

Jimmy smiled, stuffing the change into his pocket. "Oh yeah. Now Mr. White feels like a proud grandfather! I guess that's why he's over being mad at me." He turned to leave. "Thanks Doris," he said.

"Well, you hang in there Jimmy and good luck on that staff job."

"Thanks," he called as he scurried out of the café and hustled across the street.

Elle returned to reading the paper. She had finished her breakfast and was content to kill time awaiting a decent hour to visit her mother.

"More coffee, Sugar?" a woman's voice asked. Elle looked up from the paper to see Doris standing at her table.

"Sure," she replied. As Doris filled her cup, Elle spoke. "I have an appointment later on this morning. It's okay if I sit here for an hour or so, isn't it?" She lowered her voice and added, "I just got in to town and I don't feel safe wandering around the streets in this big city."

The woman chuckled. "You're perfectly safe in Metropolis, Sweetie; Superman sees to that! But you're welcome to sit here as long as you like." She grabbed her plate and utensils. "I'll check back with you in a little while."

Elle thanked the woman, sipped her coffee and resumed reading the paper.

At 8 AM, Elle rose from her table and paid Doris, including a generous tip. She thanked her and left the café heading for the Kent apartment. The morning was cool and her long black coat worn with the collar up, scarf and gloves were appropriate attire for the early morning temperature. She donned large dark sunglasses to help conceal her face. With her hair pulled tightly back, she looked more like a librarian than the daughter of the world's greatest superhero. She realized that she couldn't be recognized as Superman's daughter but wanted to blend in to the crowd as much as possible.

She walked slowly, considering how she would approach her mother with all that she had to tell her. Things were different this time. Her mother had not yet met her and had recently been told by her husband from the future that she would live for more than another 600 years. Would she believe a stranger; particularly one that brought word of Jor-El's strange ultimatum?

She strolled into the quiet lobby of the apartment complex, boarded an elevator and pushed the button for the floor on which her parents' terrace apartment existed. She exited and headed for the door. After knocking and receiving no response, she scanned the apartment using her X-ray vision to find it empty and her stomach tightened.

Elle forced herself to remain calm and think; she still had plenty of time before her parents would travel to the Fortress. She concluded that her mother was either out picking up some food or baby supplies or she was in Smallville. She looked at her watch: 8:32 AM. She determined that she could be in Smallville in a matter of seconds and by going to the Kent farm now she could easily pass her mother who may be driving there. Conversely, her mother could be out for hours shopping and although there was plenty of time now, time was still of the essence. Her backup plan was to speak with her father.

Elle returned to the streets and walked quickly to the Planet building. It had warmed up and she loosened the scarf and opened her jacket to look more appropriately dressed. She passed a construction crew and received a few wolf-whistles; something she had heard about but never before experienced. She smiled to herself and continued on. As she passed a small throng of people standing outside an office building, she heard a voice that sounded like Dr. Hamilton's. She made eye contact with one of the men in the small crowd. Her captivating looks distracted the man as he walked into the open doorway of the office. He stared at her and she smiled politely in response. As she passed, a small commotion ensured. "Watch where you're going," a voice said and then, "My God! You idiot!" another man yelled. Elle kept moving along, reluctant to stay and see what the commotion was about.

At 8:48, Elle arrived at the Daily Planet lobby. It was unlike her most recent visit. The lobby was filled with activity and the museum-like décor had not yet been established. A line of people waited to speak with a security guard in order to sign in a visitors log and gain access to the elevators. She joined the line and stood impatiently awaiting her turn at the security desk.

Just before reaching the guard, she spotted Jimmy Olsen stepping out of an elevator and an idea flashed in her head. She stepped out of line and intercepted him. "Excuse me," she began. "Aren't you Jimmy Olsen?"

His eyes widened and his face flushed at the sight of the stunning young woman. "Uh…yes," he fumbled, "I'm James Olsen," he replied, gaining his bearing. "Can I help you with something?" he asked, flashing his boyish smile.

"Yes, I hope so," Elle replied with a sincere smile. "You're a colleague of Clark Kent's, aren't you?"

Jimmy stood a little taller and nodded. "Yes, Mr. Kent and I work together a lot."

"My name is Ellen Clark," she continued, extending her hand to Jimmy. "I'm a journalism student at Met U and I'm trying to get an interview with Mr. Kent. I have a writing assignment due and I chose to do an essay on married journalists…journalists who are married to each other…and the stresses it places on marriages. Do you think it would be possible for you to get me up to see Mr. Kent?" She glanced at the line of people in the lobby and lowered her voice, "I'm on a tight schedule; I think I kind of procrastinated a little too long."

He scanned the lobby for a moment and then nodded. "Sure, I can open some doors for you," he boasted. "Come with me." He led her to the elevator, pushed the button and fidgeted in place until the door opened. They stepped in and Jimmy pushed the button for the sixth floor. "So, what year are you…"

The elevator stopped at the third floor and the door opened. Cat Grant stepped in and stared at Elle. As the door shut, she read Jimmy's face, smiled and said, "Who's your friend, Jimmy?"

"Um, this is Miss Clark," he replied, blushing once again. "She's a student at Met U and she's looking for Mr. Kent."

"Who isn't," Cat replied salaciously. "Is Clark here today?" she asked, looking back at Olsen.

"Yes Miss Grant; I was speaking with him about five minutes ago."

"I hope it won't be an inconvenience to him," Elle said. "I'm sure he's pretty busy."

"Oh he's going to love you. You look just like a younger version of his wife…and far less pregnant," she said. "Hopefully, those are the only traits you share with her," she added with a chuckle. "One thing about Clark; no matter how far behind he appears to be in his work, he never misses a deadline! He'll find time for you."

The door opened to the sixth floor and Jimmy scurried out. "Good luck," Cat called as the door closed.

"That was Cat Grant," he explained. "She covers the society page."

"She doesn't seem to have a very high opinion on Mrs. Kent, does she?"

"Oh that!" leading her down the hall to the Kents' office. "She's always been jealous of Miss Lane because she landed Mr. Kent and Mr. Kent never paid any attention to Miss Grant."

Elle giggled. It was a story that she had never heard before and the thought of someone in the office place other than her mother vying for her father's attention was absurdly normal to her.

Once they reached the office whose door read "Lois Lane-Kent; Clark Kent", Jimmy knocked and went through immediately. "CK," he called as he entered but found the office empty. He swiveled about. "That's strange," he muttered. "He was just here five minutes ago." He looked back and saw a cup of coffee with steam rising from it. "If you'd like to wait, I'm sure he'll be back in a few minutes," Jimmy said.

Elle checked her watch. 9:07. "Um, I guess I can wait a few minutes," she said. "You aren't married to another journalist, are you?" she asked Jimmy, already knowing the answer.

He swallowed. "No," he replied. "I'm still single."

"Is there a waiting room or someplace else I can wait? I'm sure Mr. Kent doesn't want me sitting in his office alone."

"I'd be happy to sit here with you," Jimmy offered. "I'm sure Mr. Kent wouldn't mind. Or you could come to my office and wait."

"No," Elle replied considering the possibilities of where her father might currently be and how long he might be occupied. "I'm sure you're busy and I certainly don't want to impose on you like that."

"It's really no problem," he replied.

"I think if you could just point me to a waiting area, I'll be fine," Elle answered.

"Well, aside from Mr. White's office, there really isn't any waiting area here. I wouldn't suggest you wait there," he said with a grin. Jimmy walked over to Lois' desk, found a sticky note and wrote on it, handing it to Elle. "Here's Mr. Kent's cell number if you'd like to call him for an appointment. If you can't reach him, I wrote my number below it." He smiled. "Call me any time; I'll be happy to help you any way I can, Ellen."

"Why thank you, James," she replied with a slight grin and Jimmy's face flushed once again.

He led her back to the elevator. "I'll ride down and wait with you," he said and Elle told him that it was not necessary to do that. "It's no problem," he replied.

"No, I really need to try someone else, I think," she assured him. "I'm on a really short deadline."

"Okay," he said with palpable disappointment on his face. "But call me if I can help you with anything else."

"Sure will, James," Elle said as the elevator doors began to close. She flashed a smile just before the doors shut. She shoved the sticky note in her jacket pocket and rode the elevator down to the lobby. She exited and went out the revolving doors onto the city street beyond.

The sidewalks were littered with people and Elle knew that she couldn't fly off or dash off without people noticing. She walked around the corner and down the street until she found the underground parking garage that she had flown in to the evening before. Once concealed from the morning light, she blurred off in the direction of Smallville. She arrived at the Kent farm less than a minute later and saw no vehicle other than a truck parked in front of the farmhouse. She surveyed the inside and saw her grandmother alone in the kitchen.

Her nerves began to fray. The time was now 9:41 and neither of her parents were anywhere to be found. She knew she still had plenty of time if everything fell into place but given the morning's events, hoping that events fell into place may be hoping for too much. She walked back to the main road, thinking as she walked. There was one other option that may be a bit of a long shot, she surmised, but it was better than rushing back and forth between locations trying to pin one of her parents down.

When she reached the main road she looked around. There were no other homes in immediate view and she launched herself upward high into the Kansas morning sky until homes below were little more than a dot on the landscape. She then turned and headed north to find the Fortress.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – Convergence

Metropolis

April 26, 2019

Aldus Landvatter had once been the evening shift commander of the security team at Luthor Mansion, guarding Tess Mercer whom he later learned was born Lutessa Luthor. He had not met Lex Luthor until the day he found Tess dead in the corporate office of the old Luthorcorp, now rebranded as Lexcorp. In addition to a dying Tess, he found a dazed and confused Lex Luthor and took matters into his own hands.

Not exactly sure why, he spirited Lex from the office. Once he secured Lex in his security sedan, he accessed the building's security office. He found it vacant; apparently a result of the 'end of the world' event unfolding outside the building. He erased all security recordings over the last hour and then anonymously called the police to report a crazed, knife-wielding intruder that had entered the elevators of the Luthorcorp building. He hung up the phone and raced to the underground garage where a semi-conscious Lex Luthor sat in a black sedan with blacked-out privacy windows. He slowly pulled out of the underground garage and departed without notice of the crowds that clogged the streets.

The responding police eventually found Tess dead in her office; victim of an unidentified assailant. The proximity of an alien planet to Earth had disrupted many systems that day and the Luthorcorp security system was simply deemed to be one of them. Tess Mercer's death had been one of many that day as people across the world gave way to panic born of apocalyptic predictions. Like so many others that day, Tess Mercer's murder would never be classified as a closed case but it nevertheless would be filed away in cabinets where other unsolvable cases resided.

When Lex recovered his bearings, Landvatter explained that he had discovered him disoriented in the proximity of a woman that had recently been stabbed to death and given Lex's condition, felt that extricating him from the scene to prevent unwarranted suspicion was the best course of action. Lex surmised that Landvatter knew more than he was telling but the man could intricately weave a story of half-truths so convincing that it was impossible to dispute; a trait Lex admired and immediately offered him a job as chief of his personal security detail. Over the next seven years, Aldus Landvatter became Lex's most trusted 'handyman'. No job was too big, too small or too dirty to entrust to Aldus Landvatter. Lex decided that no man was more discreet or undemanding as Landvatter.

Over the next seven years, Landvatter hand-picked a small cadre of men whose levels of discretion and unflinching obedience nearly equaled his own. When Lex was elected President and assigned a permanent Secret Service team, Landvatter and his team were relegated to a shadow force that carried out any of Lex's initiatives that required audacity, discretion and plausible deniability.

Landvatter had recently created and planted complex doctored financial records that convincingly implicated Supreme Court Justice Cyrus Nedders in a scheme to accept money from corporations whose cases were being heard before the high court in return for an opinion favorable to them. Although the connection between bogus deposits and Nedders' bogus financial accounts was byzantine, it was just the sort of complex, sophisticated scheme that a normal citizen would expect someone of a Supreme Court Justice's position employing. Lex Luthor confronted Nedders with the doctored records by in private and was given a choice to resign or be exposed to the humiliation of a public trial. Nedders resigned to spare himself and the high court from the embarrassment.

As Landvatter dismantled the complex web of connections, he traced the large sums of money back to their sources and found the sources tied to Morgan Edge: media mogul, owner of WGBS, and reputed head of Intergang. Although he uttered nothing of his discoveries, the link between Luthor, Edge and Intergang was extremely troubling. Landvatter had always fancied himself a specialist and wanted no connection to organized crime; particularly Intergang. He had always justified his distasteful work as necessary to protect the interests of the country; himself an instrument of the Chief Executive of the United States.

He hung up the phone and leapt into action, assembling his team and briefing them on the mission: to impersonate federal agents serving a search warrant on a medical research facility operated by Dr. Emil Hamilton, suspected of conducting illicit human cloning experiments. "We will seize all evidentiary specimens as part of the operation," he told his agents. "In particular, we need to seize all blood and bodily fluid specimens stored at the facility. Once secured, all samples will be immediately transported to Cadmus Labs for testing. We begin at 8:30 AM sharp."

Clark smiled when he met Lois and Lara in the exquisitely furnished lobby of the Plaza Uptown Metropolis. It was 8:26 AM and members of the Vice President's Secret Service team were spread out within the lobby. The agent in charge of the Vice Presidential security team greeted the Kents and advised them that Vice President and Mrs. Ross had just arrived in the hotel moments before and had asked that the agent-in-charge escort them to the Presidential Suite.

Lois was dressed in a smart grey business suit and striking fuchsia silk blouse that she had purchased just before learning that she was pregnant with Lara. "You look great, Lois," Clark said, taking Lara from her. "I don't remember ever seeing you in that before."

"Thanks Honey," she replied. "I haven't worn it before but it's been hanging in the closet for nearly nine months. It's the best I could do on short notice," she added.

He winked. "You did well; short notice agrees with you." They rode silently in the elevator as Clark gently stroked Lara's cheek and nose. She stared at him and looked ready to smile as he brushed a lock of her thick hair away from her forehead.

Pete and Lana were waiting for them as the elevator doors opened. Lana and Pete hugged Lois and Pete shook Clark's hand before they descended upon Lara. They fawned over her and Lana waved her hands furiously, motioning that she wanted to hold the youngest member of the Kent family. Pete looked at Lana with Lara then turned to Clark and smiled. "You really know how to put the pressure on, Clark," he said and clapped his friend on the back. "Let's go into the suite where we can relax. We can't stay very long; I already had to rearrange my schedule for the day," he added, "but President Luthor thought we should visit. He asked that I pass along his congratulations to you both."

Lois snorted. "Sure he did!"

Pete donned a fake smile. "Actually, he said that just as I was leaving his office with his Secret Service detail who escorted us all the way from the White House to Metropolis." He looked at Clark hoping that his friend somehow understood the subtle message he was conveying. Clark said nothing but caught the inference and realized that the visit was orchestrated by Lex but could conclude little more.

"This was sure a pleasant surprise," Lois remarked as they sat in the luxurious suite with Agents Taylor and Wise standing within fifteen feet of them at all times. "I wish I had known you were coming sooner. I would have asked Chloe to join us. I know she would have loved to see her old roommate again, Lana."

"It was as much a surprise to us and it is to you," Pete announced. "It's not at all unpleasant and it's not as though we hadn't discussed visiting you sometime soon," he began and then stalled.

"But Pete and I were pulled away from our schedules on the urging of the President," Lana continued. "I was still in my nightgown when I got the call," she said with a smile.

"That makes two of us," Lois said with a chuckle. "And this was all President Luthor's idea?" Pete nodded. "Well," she began, "I guess I'll have to reconsider some of the barbs I send his way after such an act of kindness."

The odd disclosures by Lana and Pete had not been lost on Lois or Clark. They both knew exactly what the Rosses were implying and needed no more hints. Over the next three hours, the four adults reconnected over stories of growing up in Smallville, all the while hovering over Lara. At first, Pete seemed distracted but as the visit wore on he became more relaxed. "She's beautiful, Lois," Pete declared. "She looks just like you!" He turned to Clark. "I think owning a shotgun is bound to be in your future, Clark." They all laughed at the inside joke that never seemed all that funny to Agents Wise and Taylor.

As the meeting drew to a close, Pete looked at his watch, stood and was immediately joined by Lana. "Clark, Lois; we have to be going," he announced. "But I hope that you'll visit us at the residence. We'd love to have you join us for brunch some weekend."

"We're free most every weekend," Lois blurted out, imagining the stories she may glean from such a meeting. "Just let us know," she added.

"Well make sure that when you come, you bring Lara. We'd love to see her as well," Lana added.

They exchanged hugs and handshakes before Lois, Clark and Lara were escorted from the suite to the lobby by Pete's agent-in-charge. They exited the lobby of the opulent hotel where Lois' vehicle had been parked by the valet. Clark put Lara in her car seat while Lois moved to the passenger side. He climbed in behind the wheel and drove away. "That was really nice," Lois commented as Clark scanned the car for listening devices.

Finding none, he agreed and added, "And a bit strange. What do you think Luthor was up to?"

"I'm not sure but the President never dispatches his security team with the Vice President. It seemed to me," she opined, "that he wanted those two agents to keep an eye or ear on Pete or you; maybe both of you. But I'm not sure why."

Nodding, he said, "We'll find out sooner or later. Whatever his plan was, I'm not sure it turned out the way he wanted it to," Clark added as he drove his two favorite ladies home.

She looked at the crystals arrayed in the receptacles next to the console. She tried sliding several different ones into the center port on the console before Jor-El's voice echoed in the large icy chamber. _Welcome Kal-El._

"It is not Kal-El," Elle said. "My name is Lara Ella Kent. I am the daughter of Kal-El and his wife, Lois Lane."

There was a brief delay in a response. Finally a response was received. _It is improbable that you are Kal-El's offspring. It is Earth year 2019 and you have only existed for 18 days._

"I am from the year 2042, Jor-El and I come to speak to you about a matter of the utmost importance."

At 8:30 AM on the dot, Lanvatter's team entered the nondescript offices of Dr. Emil Hamilton. Two of his men entered Emil's large private office while the rest of the team fanned out to scour the numerous small offices within the suite. "What is the meaning of this?" Emil angrily demanded, rising from behind his desk.

"Doctor Hamilton," one of the men said, "we have a warrant issued by the Department of Justice to search this facility and seize all evidence of suspected illegal cloning." He shoved the document at Emil for his view.

"Cloning?" Emil replied with a look of shock and surprise. "I conduct research on plaque-destroying medications," he protested. "If it's cloning you're looking for, try Cadmus Labs!"

"That's not what the Justice Department believes, Doctor. Cadmus is government-funded and we have full overview of their activities. I am requesting your cooperation, Doctor, to minimize disruption to your operations and expedite the completion of our search. With your help, we can be out of here within an hour."

"I'm calling my attorney," Emil replied.

"Feel free, Doctor. But I can tell you that we'll continue the search with or without your consent and your lawyer will not be able to obtain a federal injunction before we complete our job. If you cooperate, you can help us prevent any unnecessary damage or disruption of your work."

Emil put down his telephone and stared dejectedly at the agents. "What do you need from me, gentlemen?"

The senior agent moved past him and stared closely at an anatomy illustration on the wall. He turned back to Emil. "Access to your special laboratory beyond this wall," he replied.

Blinking in quick consecution, he donned a quizzical look. "What are you talking about?"

"Your palm print, Doctor," the agent replied matter-of-factly. "Please facilitate our entry; otherwise we will be forced to close the facility down until access can be gained through brute force measures."

Reluctantly, Emil consented to the demand and the wall slid, revealing two steel double doors just beyond the opening. "Please continue, Doctor."

Emil opened the two steel vault doors revealing a sophisticated emergency and operating room with adjoining private recovery rooms. Beyond the large room was a glass window revealing a small lab. The senior agent proceeded directly to the lab and opened a cooling unit revealing two test tubes containing blood. Both were marked in codes. He withdrew the metal rack in which the tubes were placed.

"This is where I obtain my specimens and do my work," Emil offered to the junior agent. "It's protected like this because of competitors and need for secrecy. There is no illegal activity going on in this facility," he reiterated.

"Seems like a lot of security for blood research, Dr. Hamilton," the younger man replied.

Emil swiveled on his heel. "Can you imagine the profit that could be made on a successful pharmaceutical that safely dissolves arterial plaque? My research is drawing close and my competitors would like nothing more than to obtain my results," he parried.

"Are these the extent of your specimens, Doctor?" the senior agent asked, holding the rack up and then handing them to the younger agent. Emil stared at the rack of only two blood samples and it appeared that his face dropped.

He paused. "Yes, those are all of the ones that have proven most responsive to the medication," Emil answered reluctantly.

"I hope you're not lying to me Doctor," the agent said. He looked at the younger agent. "Take those to the vehicle. And be careful with them," he added. "I'm going take a quick sweep back here just to keep the Doctor honest." The younger agent nodded, pivoted on his heel and left. "Walk with me Doctor."

The younger agent headed out through Emil's office and down the short hallway. He entered the constricted lobby of the building and headed for the outer doors. One of the team members had positioned himself at the doorway to prevent employees from entering while holding the door for other team members carrying boxes of records and blood samples out of the building. A small crowd of employees and onlookers had formed around the entrance, causing congestion on the sidewalk.

The youngest agent on the team was quickly heading back into the building when he spotted a striking brunette in a long black leather coat traversing the crowd. They made eye contact and the young agent was captivated by her deep blue eyes, flawless complexion and rich, full lips. The beautiful brunette smiled at him in return. He moved inside, staring at the stunning young woman as she continued past and without realizing it, barreled directly into the agent carrying the rack of blood samples taken from the secret lab beyond Doctor Hamilton's office. They collided with such force that it sent the rack spiraling out of the agent's hand and the two test tubes of blood hurling toward the granite floor.

"Watch where you're going!" the agent at the door warned just as they collided.

The tubes of blood shattered on impact with the floor. For an instant, the three men stared at the spattered blood and glass fragments on the highly polished floor. "Oh my God!" the agent cried out. "You idiot!" He glared at the youngest man, distraught at the site and enraged at the younger man's carelessness. The agent at the door moved inside and shut the door to the street. "Stay here and don't let anyone in or out," the young agent told the two other team members. "I have to tell the boss and see what he wants to do."

_And what matter is so important that you would risk the future of mankind? _Jor-El queried. _Your presence in this temporal moment threatens your existence far greater than you could ever imagine, my child. It is forbidden for you to interfere with human history and your presence here is unwise._

"I am not here to change human history and I fully understand the risk I take in being here," she proclaimed. "Jor-El, it is you who will soon have interfered with human history and your actions will have devastating consequences on mankind and your son in particular." She paused. "The effect any change will have on my future is inconsequential to those that you will cause if you do not reconsider the choices you will propose to my mother this very evening. Your intention to prevent further procreation between my mother and father leads to Kal-El's despair and eventual abandonment of humanity. He will no longer be the example to mankind; to be the beacon of hope you envisioned. Instead he will become despondent and unwilling to continue the mission you've given him by sending him to Earth."

_And how have you deduced that it is the result of my actions, Lara El?_

"My name is Lara Ella Kent, Jor-El. I am the only child of Kal-El and I am your only grandchild. I have seen firsthand the consequences of the ultimatum you intend to give my mother; I have lived it my entire life. While it is not precisely clear why, what is undeniable is the result. Your son, my father, will prematurely lose his wife and her death will cause him to lose his faith in mankind. With it," she added, "he'll lose his desire to serve humanity and to be a beacon of hope for anyone. This is not speculation or conjecture, Jor-El; it is fact!"

There was no sound for some time as the words spoken by Elle resonated with Jor-El. Finally, he spoke. _I did not send my son to Earth for the purpose of regenerating the Kryptonian race. Earth provided a sanctuary where Kal-El could not only live safely and anonymously among humans but to serve as their protector and as an example to mankind in hopes that it will follow his example. The mutation of your mother's DNA will enable her to exist centuries longer than a normal human and centuries of opportunities for additional offspring that can be influenced by human emotions. Lara, that undeniable truth creates an unacceptable probability of a child with advanced powers that is governed by emotions rather than reason. A single being with those powers would introduce a threat so great that it could undo all the progress that your father can make. It is my intention is to prevent that from happening._

"And yet I am here to tell you that will not happen," Elle countered. "All that you hoped for will come to pass if you do not interfere with my parents' life. The world becomes that place but only when my father has my mother by his side. Without her, he will not succeed in the task you have given him."

_And you know this how?_

"From your son of the future's visit to my mother on the night of my birth," she replied. "In nearly 650 years from now, mankind will have been transformed by his example but only if he has his mate by his side. Tonight they will visit you, Jor-El. Tonight you will choose to either trust your son and his wife or you will interfere and alter the course of human history by altering my mother's ability to bear more children."

_My child,_ Jor-El began. _A future can change in many unforeseen ways. It is rarely a single event in human history that produces such a profound and lasting change. To believe solely that preventing further procreation of hybrid children changes the fate of mankind is folly. _

"And yet I stand before you telling you that it does," she replied forcefully.

_And yet you cannot explain why,_ he boomed_. You cannot tell me how preventing a supremely dominant subspecies of beings introduced into your world would not adversely affect it when all historical and scientific evidence of the entire universe points to the exact opposite. _

"I hope to convince you to have faith in your son and his wife, Jor-El," Elle replied. "The same faith that you placed in him when sending him to Earth I am imploring you to place in him now. Your son is the product of his upbringing and your guidance. I am simply asking you to disregard all that you've known and allow the future to unfold without your influence for it is your influence that truly affects the future."

_My child, it is not my intent to interfere; only to prevent calamity. There has never been an instance in the history of all the known galaxies where a dominant subspecies has ever favorably altered the civilization into which it was introduced. I remain highly skeptical that humans would be any different than the other civilizations across the universe. _He paused and then continued. _ And if I choose to remain unconvinced?_

"Jor-El, when I leave this place I will travel back to my present place in the future and I will know the consequences of your decision. I have provided you facts that should be compelling but if you choose to remain unconvinced and the future remains unchanged, then I will return," Elle threatened, "and when I do, I will remove the crystals from here, take them with me to the future and prevent you from ever interfering in this matter."

Again there was a long delay as Jor-El processed the information. _Doing so,_ he replied, _would rob your father of his only source of counsel in matters not known to mankind. Doing that could have disastrous consequences as well, my child. Doing that could threaten mankind's entire existence to include your own._

She nodded. "I have faith in my father and my mother, Jor-El," Elle replied. "I urge you to do the same."

After what seemed an incredibly long pause, Jor-El spoke. _You make me proud, Lara Ella Kent, _he said in a gentle tone. _You possess the courage of your convictions and the willingness to sacrifice your own future to promote a future that I hoped might exist one day for mankind. News of this future validates my decision made so long ago to send your father to Earth. _He paused and then continued. _I will give consideration to the information you have provided and choose when the time comes._

Landvatter's face flushed when his senior team member informed him of the mishap at the door to the building. "Damnit! That was the blood we were looking for," he growled. "Recover as much of it as you can," he ordered, "Bring it to me immediately and get out of there!" He barked and disconnected from the call. He contemplated his next move while he ran his hands through his hair. After a brief delay, he set his jaw and called Lex. "Sir," he began as the call was connected. "We have recovered all the available blood from the special laboratory as you asked and it is in the process of being brought here. Sir, there were only two blood samples from the special lab."

"I did not expect more than that, Mr. Landvatter," Lex replied coolly.

"Very good, Sir. My men should be finishing up within the next ten minutes."

"And there was no outside interference during your operation?" Lex inquired. He had fully expected Superman or some other member of the Justice League to make an appearance.

"No, Sir. My team gave no opportunity for Doctor Hamilton to make a phone call."

_I caught a break_, he thought. Lex checked his watch and smiled. The entire operation lasted less than an hour. "Very well done then, Mr. Landvatter. Keep me posted when the initial analysis of the blood is completed."

At 12:10 PM, Emil contacted Clark at the Daily Planet via the special JL communicator that Oliver had issued to all members. He described what had transpired that morning at the clinic while Clark and Lois spent time with Pete and Lana.

"It sounds like everything worked out as you planned it, Emil," Clark replied. "We really appreciate you doing this for her. After the incident with Doctor Walker, I think this may go a long way to keeping her off Lex's radar."

"We certainly hope so," he replied.

"We?"

"Yes we - me and my alter ego; Mr. Myles," Emil answered wryly.

It was 7 PM and Lois had finished feeding Lara her bottle. "I think we should take Lara up to the Fortress," Lois suggested. "I'd like to hear what Jor-El has to say about her," she added with a wry smile.

"You just want to hear him say he was wrong," Clark countered.

She nodded. "Okay; there's a lot of truth in that statement, Smallville. I think he deserves to know that I'm not some two-timing tramp."

"Lois!" he admonished. "He offered blue Kryptonite as an explanation."

"And left any other explanation up to you," she added. "In other words, if you weren't under the influence of blue K, 'you're wife's been stepping out on you Kal-El'," she said in a baritone parody.

He smiled and shook his head. "Well, I suppose he didn't leave me with many other explanations, did he?" She arched one eyebrow and cocked her head. "I guess we should take Lara though," he agreed. "Jor-El did want me to bring a blood sample so he could determine the percentage of Kryptonian heritage she has. That will give us an idea of what to expect as she grows up. I asked Emil to draw a sample just after she was delivered."

"Good thinking," Lois responded.

"After analyzing your blood, he informed me that it would beneficial that he speak to you about the analysis results. He didn't indicate that there was any urgency but as long as we're up there, maybe that would be the time to speak to him."

She frowned. "He didn't say, 'Bring her to me so I can apologize for the last seven months of implying that she's a slut'?" Lois replied with an impish grin.

He unsuccessfully tried to suppress a smile. "Let me run and get that sample from the clinic and I'll be right back."

Clark dashed to Emil's office and opened the special credenza that Bruce had built to store his medical records. Within the safe was the tube of blood that Emil had drawn from Lara at Clark's request. He grabbed it, closed the safe and credenza and headed back home where Lois was waiting with a bundled up Lara.

"You hold, Lara," he said as they walked onto the terrace. "And I'll hold you," he concluded. He picked her up and launched them straight up gaining speed and altitude into the darkening sky, high enough to escape notice from below. He then banked into a wide arc and headed north to the Fortress.

He flew quickly until they left the metropolitan area and then slowed to take a more leisurely speed. Even at the slower speed, they arrived at the Fortress in less than an hour.

Clark provided Jor-El Lara's blood sample to analyze while Lois wandered into the Fortress bedroom and laid with her daughter. After some time, Clark appeared and informed her that Jor-El wanted to speak with her.

"_Lois Kent, we must speak_," Jor-El said. "_It is imperative that I inform you of my findings after analyzing your blood specimen. These are matters of great importance not only to you but to your relationship with Kal-El and your daughter, Lara, as well._"

"You are referring to our part-human, part-Kryptonian daughter?" Lois replied.

"_Yes. Inasmuch as I had no basis upon which I could logically conceive propagation between humans and Kryptonians, I found no reason to believe that your child was anything but human. It is simply not possible._"

"Yet she's sleeping in a chamber not far from here," Lois replied.

"_That is correct. However, that does not change the fact that humans and Kryptonians cannot propagate. The fact is, Lois Kent; you are no longer purely human. You have become a hybrid being._

"_The mutation of your DNA and making you capable of propagation with a Kryptonian was not a natural phenomenon. Nor was it my intention at the time to leave you susceptible to such mutation._"

"Your intention?" Lois asked.

"_Yes. Many Earth years ago, you confronted me questioning the love I have for my son and my faith in him. There had been two others of your species who had similarly voiced such sentiments in this chamber, Lois Kent. Your admonishment of my actions forced me to examine you. I found that unlike the others, your feelings for my son and your intentions were pure, unwavering and unambiguous. The inner strength I found in you was the strength of conviction that my son's destiny could best be filled with you to give him the companionship and support that he needed to fulfill the purpose for which I sent him._

"_Upon realizing that, I irradiated you. My intent was to merely slow the destructive processes of the human body; doubling your lifespan so that my son could keep a companion longer than the normal human existence. But by doing so, I put into motion certain changes in your biological composition that I had not foreseen. It enabled the mutation of your DNA by that of Kal-El's. Once mutated, you became biologically compatible for propagation._"

"So thirteen years ago, you suspended me in a beam of light and that's the reason I got pregnant?" Lois clarified.

"_Correct. The unintended consequence of extending your lifespan was the weakening of the natural physical barriers that prevent DNA mutation._"

"So will we be able to conceive more children?"

"_Yes, and that is the reason I speak to you and you alone, Lois Kent. A subspecies of beings with superior powers have been introduced into civilizations across the galaxy throughout time. In every case where those exceptional beings were introduced, calamity ensued._"

"I'd like to consider my child and any other children we may have as special kids; not exceptional beings, Jor-El, and certainly not a subspecies," she replied tersely.

"_It is not my intention to speak in terms you find derogatory," _Jor-El replied. _"In scientific terms, your child is a hybrid being and therefore a subspecies of the human race. She is exceptional and special, Lois Kent. I am confident that she will grow to become no less significant than her parents and selflessly contribute to civilization thanks to your influence. As a singular being, she will be alone. Just as Kal-El's mother and I feared for him, your daughter could face that feeling of loneliness and separation without peer or sibling to alleviate the feeling of isolation. Even having parents will not fully resolve that inner conflict that Kal-El faced so many years ago."_

Lois listened intently, trying to glean the point of Jor-El's counsel. "What is it you're trying to tell me Jor-El; to go forth and propagate?"

"_Simply this: you will capable of bearing children for several centuries if you and Kal-El choose. As a family unit, you and Kal-El will provide the necessary guidance, companionship and values to make your special offspring assets to human civilization. But as your biological composition continues to evolve, Lois Kent, you will become more resistant to human contraceptive methods to include surgical ones. When the time comes that you and Kal-El decide that you no longer wish to produce children, I counsel you to return to the Fortress where I can permanently neutralize your ability to reproduce in a noninvasive and painless manner done simply with light."_

Lois listened and finally understood his intent. She smiled. "I will discuss this with Clark, Jor-El. And when the time comes that together we make that decision, we will return for your assistance."

The light in the grand chamber increased, signaling the end of their conversation. Lois walked back to the bedroom and found Clark dozing next to Lara. She watched him in silence for a moment, capturing the moment in her mind forever. Lois smiled, awakened him and they all flew back home.

Epilogue

July 7, 2019

Metropolis

"Daily Planet; this is Clark Kent speaking," he said into the phone.

"Mr. Kent," the caller began, "my name is Aldus Landvatter. We met briefly nine years ago when I was the head of security for Tess Mercer at the old Luthor Mansion. I greatly admired Miss Mercer and I know that she implicitly trusted you so that's the reason for my call."

Clark could not picture Landvatter in his mind but listened to the man. It had been years since the name of Tess Mercer had been uttered in his presence and the fact that the man called intrigued him. "Go ahead Mr. Landvatter. How can I help you?"

"Mr. Kent; I've since been occasionally contracted by President Luthor to perform certain tasks for him;" he paused, "Tasks that I used to think were critical to protecting the citizens of the United States. Now I have my doubts and I'd like to provide you some information that I believe is important for you to know regarding certain affiliations that the President has with certain groups."

July 17, 2021

Smallville

Clark stood in the loft of the barn thinking about how complete his life had become. He had a beautiful, loving soul mate for the rest of the foreseeable future; together they made a family that would support him and one day follow in his footsteps, and he had a sense of purpose that he and Lois fully embraced.

He stared out at the fields thinking how little had changed just beyond the window and how so much had changed just inside it. Gone were all the doubts he once had; gone were the worries of an isolated life of giving and living solely on the knowledge that he had made a difference. He felt complete.

Footsteps on the wooden stairs behind him tore him away from his thoughts. "We spent a few years up here, didn't we?" Pete announced. He chuckled. "I think back to those days and how simpler life seemed." He clapped Clark on the back. "I want to thank you and Lois for the party," he said. "And great job with Luthor, Clark. It appears you and your source prevented the death of a Supreme Court justice and ended up putting Lex away for twenty years." He smiled genuinely at his friend. "Not bad for a farm boy from Smallville."

"I couldn't have done it without your help, Pete; you know that."

"All I did was provide the information you developed to the right people, Clark…"

"And you provided me your trust," Clark added.

"Sheesh! You've always had that," his friend reassured. Staring at one another for a few moments, Pete continued. "But what you haven't always had," he began, bent over and picked up a basketball from behind the old settee that was a fixture in the loft, "was a very good fifteen-foot jump shot," he chided.

"What?" Clark said. "Even on my worst day…"

"Which will officially be in the next five minutes," Pete interjected. "Let's go, Man," he said, jamming the ball into Clark's midsection. "You and me; one-on-one!" Clark grinned, grabbed the ball from Pete and headed down the steps. "I've got my Secret Service detail here just to keep it fair," he added, following his friend down the stairs to the floor of the barn.

They emerged into the warm Kansas afternoon sun. Clark spotted Lana and Lois talking on the porch. He bounced the basketball on the ground a couple times and Lois looked in his direction. "Oh…game on!" she hollered and Pete grinned. Lana struggled to stand and Lois helped her up. They walked to the end of the porch for a better view.

"You better go inside, Lois," Pete yelled. "You probably don't want to witness the smack-down I'm going to put on your man!"

"You're wrong about that, Mr. President," Lois called out in replied. She found Clark's eyes, cocked her head and smirked. "I'd love to see it!"

"Lana really looks happy being pregnant; she truly seems to be glowing," Clark remarked.

"Don't try to butter me up, Kent," Pete replied. "You're going down."

Chloe dragged a chair up behind Lois and invited Lana to sit. "Oh this will be interesting," she quipped, glancing at the two Secret Service agents watching from the shade beneath one of the large trees in front of the Kent farm.

llllllllllllllllllllllllll

May 25, 2042

Metropolis

Elle returned from the Fortress to the apartment. It was six-thirty in the evening and everything seemed different. The furniture had been replaced with more contemporary leather furniture. Gone were the trinkets, framed photos and awards that once graced the inside of the Kent apartment. She stood there for a moment before a large, handsome young man with black hair and a strong chin emerged from what was once her bedroom. "Tell me you haven't been spending the afternoon with Tim Drake again," he said annoyed. "Mom's on the warpath because Dad flew off about an hour ago and hasn't come back yet. She thought you were with him and I didn't tell her differently but I'm not getting in the middle of this one," he warned. Elle stared and a smile grew on her face.

"You might think it's funny now but when Mom comes through that door, you won't think so!" the boy admonished.

"Where's Father right now?"

"See?" he cried. "I knew you weren't with him! He's in Jacksonville, Florida where that bridge collapsed and all those cars were in danger of falling into the St. Johns River. Hello!" He ran his hands through his hair, smoothing back the thick black locks. "You better hurry and get changed before Mom…"

The front door to the apartment flew open and Elle saw Lois standing in the doorway. She was wearing a worn-out blue jeans, cowboy boots and a sleeveless plaid shirt. "You're not wearing that!" she roared. "This isn't a retro screening of 'The Matrix', Lara; it's a Monster Truck Rally. Get in your room and put on some jeans. For the love of Pete!" She glanced at the young man in the room. "Jonathan, you're ready aren't you?" 

"Just about Mom," he replied. "I just have to put on my shoes."

She threw her hands up in the air. "Great Caesar's Ghost! Why do I have a family of kids that are faster than speeding bullets but can't ever seem to be on time for anything!" Clark appeared behind her and she swiveled around. "It's about time you got home, too."

"Relax Lois; we'll be there on time," he said, smiling. He wore jeans, boots and a flannel shirt. He held out his arms. "How do I look?"

She reached into his top pocket, pulled out his glasses and stuck them on his face. She cocked her head and winced. "Let me help you," she replied and tore the sleeves off his shirt. "There!" she proclaimed. "Better." She looked behind him. "Where's Little Bruce, now?" she complained.

"Right here," a teenaged voice called and blurred into view. "Just waiting on everyone else," he said as he listened to music through ear buds. "And please stop calling me 'Little' Bruce, Mom," he whined. "I'm fifteen years old."

Elle emerged from the bedroom that used to be her parents room wearing jeans, work boots and a Whitesnake t-shirt. "Is this better?" she asked.

"Much," Lois replied. "But you better not get anything on that t-shirt," she warned. Jonathan reappeared fully dressed. "Are we ready now?" she asked exasperated. "Let's go!"

Elle smiled. "Go ahead," she said. "I'll be right there; I just have to put something away." She blurred past Lois, Jonathan, Little Bruce and into the apartment across the hallway where her parents had apparently moved.

"Of course," Lois carped, rolling her eyes. She put her hand on Jonathan's back and gave him a gentle push out the door. "Move it soldier," she said. "Make sure you lock the door behind you," she reminded Elle.

Elle found her parents' room and opened the top drawer of her father's chest of drawers. She took a deep breath, pulled the Legion Ring from her finger, dropped it in the drawer and slammed it shut just as her head filled with flashes of new memories. For a moment she felt disoriented and dizzy as if her soul had left her body and had been replaced by another. She slumped to one knee, shaking her head to clear it.

"Lara?" her father called from the front door.

She took a deep breath and it cleared her head. She stood upright and felt different for some reason that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She realized that her head was filled with these horrible thoughts of her parents' death and abandonment. _Maybe I shouldn't be spending so much time with Tim Drake,_ she thought. _It's messing with my head_.

"Lara; are you okay, Sweetheart?" he called with a genuine concern in his voice.

"Yes Daddy," she called back. "I'm fine; I'm coming."

End of Story


End file.
